Echo-casting
by Espresso Stories
Summary: Pandora - the highs, the lows, the snipes and the sass that's exhibited by a collection of weirdos when they're not busy plotting to tear down a dictator. Starring the commando, the mechromancer, a pair of machines and an amused audience of other Vault Hunters. - Discontinued.
1. Crawl before you walk

_Well... here we are. Again! I first started drafting Echo-casting back on my old account and submitted chapter 1 on the 21st of October, 2012. And for a long time, it was my biggest project. In many ways it still is. I stopped updating after Chapter 13, around June in 2013, for a whole range of different reasons. Namely I was involved more heavily in studies, work and, at the time, a long distance relationship. Since then I've found some peace in life. I've settled down and married, work is steady, and I've managed to juggle my other writing projects (such as the 30 Day Challenge I'm currently scribbling on my Tumblr). But my thoughts always came back to this story - the potential it had, the effort involved, and just how many awesome people took the time to review and contact me with questions and thoughts._

_So, with a bit more focus and a little less chaos than we've had over the years since starting, I'm going to go back and try to polish and, hopefully, finish what I started here._

_~Quite-Write_

* * *

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 1 – Crawl before you walk**

* * *

Mornings in Liar's Berg, the Vault Hunters had decided, was much the same as any other part of the day. Cold, wet, miserable and mind-numbingly boring. After two days of getting their bearings, rebuilding their supplies of equipment and hunting a midget riding a bullymong, the team were preparing themselves to kick Captain Flynt from his fiery throne. Before that, however, there was the little matter of their unique skills.

Although Maya and Salvador had been able to shake off the initial explosion of the train car days before, Zer0 had only just managed to get his stealth suit back in working order, albeit far less effective that it had once been. However, both Gaige and Axton were still at a disadvantage. In the late evening before, the mechromancer had opened her prosthetic arm to find that Deathtrap's digistruct battery looked like a lump of melted coal.

It took both Maya and Zer0 to remind her that she was lucky to be alive at all: hiding from authorities in the luggage compartment of the monorail had saved her from the initial explosion, but the carriages crashing against each other were enough to knock her out. It was luck, she mused, that Salvador had noticed her upside down in the snow, calling her striped socks "fleshy candy canes!" So Gaige was brought in from the cold, and the team had simply gone from there. But she couldn't stop herself from pouting when Maya would grip bandits in her force field, or watch Zer0 appear in two spots at once. Having Deathtrap incapacitated sucked.

And then there was Axton, who had carried on with a scavenged assault rifle and occasionally curse his lack of "the Missus." He hadn't gone into much detail about it – he would simply pull out a damaged digistruct storage deck and frown at it. It was Maya who filled the younger woman in on the train ride, and how the commando had pulled an automatic turret out of no-where. Dahl turrets, from what Gaige could remember, were damned awesome like that.

"Hey kid, you say you're an engineer?" he had asked later, and Gaige puffed her cheeks in frustration.  
"I'm a woman of science and ass-kickery, not some kid." For good point, she'd punctuate this with pointing a steel claw up towards his face, and the commando would grin and shake his head.  
"Of course you are." He would concede, before finally handing over the damaged plate. "And what ass-kicking science can you work on this?" Gaige inspected the plate like one would a crude drawing. It was sophisticated and large, for a digistruct device, but it was still broken.  
"Need's a new battery." She supplied, before handing it back. After all, she'd designed and built devices similar from scratch. And it didn't cost her an arm and a leg – just an arm.

Later in the day, Axton had returned from the old lookout with a crate of old shield devices, and a smirk on his face. "Vendor broke – it was a good time to go shopping." He said, dropping the box into the snow and fishing out a salvaged battery from his pocket. Nobody said anything because really, for cheap, old shields, it was a stupid place for a vending machine.

* * *

Since then, Axton had torn off half a dozen blocks from the crumbling stone wall, stacking them into three neat pairs. The jury-rigged plate was now humming with life, the base of his precious Dahl turret was currently resting on the make-shift hoist, and the entire upper half was upside down in the snow beside it. Axton's legs were stretched out underneath the stand, and an inconsistent tinkering noise and muttered curses completed the scene. Naturally, Gaige was intrigued.

All in all, the turret was a mess. The barrel was bent, the ammo belt was torn and from the look of the melted edges there would be a lot of internals to be replaced. The only thing that had managed to survive was the magnetic coupling, and the lack of power still kept the gun in two halves.

"That's one of the saddest damned sight I've ever seen." Gaige muttered, affectionately patting the coupler with her metal hand. From underneath the tripod, Axton grunted.  
"Try seeing it from the inside. Darling's tough, but Jack's little stunt abused her." A broken bolt was flicked out from underneath, narrowly missing a beat boxing Claptrap. Gaige scratched her cheek idly, trying not to say what she was thinking. '_This got more than just abused._' "Think you'll be able to fix it?" she asked instead, and Axton laughed.  
"Sure, if push comes to shove. But it'll mean rebuilding her. Of course..." The commando began to ease himself out from underneath. "That's the fun part."

Gaige cocked her head, remembering the echo-net pages for parts and builds capable with Dahl turrets. Multiple chain guns, rocket pods, longbow technology: an assortment of installations and technology could turn a vanilla turret into a nuclear powered death machine. The younger woman almost felt turned on.  
"Now you _have_ to tell me more." She demanded.

"Well, the sexiest part of these babies is their versatility." He said, sitting up in the snow and wiping his hands on his legs. "I mean, we were... _encouraged_ to build them up a certain way, y'know? A mix Dahl's survival parts and you can have a shield for protection. Throw in a few guerrilla specs and you'll have a turret so cheap, you can deploy a pair of them." Axton waved his hand in front of his face dismissively. "A battalion could have a whole perimeter set up with a few of those. So the higher up's liked it when we requested those parts – for the good of the outfit, and all that mess."

Gaige hummed and nodded, trying to picture a group of similar commando's using dozens of vanilla turrets for cover. She didn't notice as Maya had walked over between them and rapped her knuckle on the upside-down upper half.

"It sounds like a good idea." She commented, and flicked a cool gaze at the commando. "I remember you tossing this up on the ceiling back on the train. It's a pretty clever defence. Very..." The siren paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Versatile, didn't you say?" Axton stood up and began prying at the torn ammo belt in the tripod.

"Well, yeah, it's handy. But it's not what I meant. I can see the appeal and all..." he said, yanking the melted belt free of the drum. "But why have a shield when you can have a pair of rocket pods? Or a guided laser sight?" He grinned and tapped the bent barrel with his boot, and Gaige almost felt dizzy at how appealing the broken turret suddenly looked.

"That's... effing awesome." She finally said, which only made the commando grin wider and wink. "Hell yeah it is."

Maya rolled her eyes and began to stage whisper to Gaige. "Don't encourage him. I heard he was dishonourably discharged for not sticking to safe plans." The commando held his hands up in defence and began claiming that "it was _still_ awesome. And don't go telling the kid that," he gestured towards the mechromancer, who again felt her cheeks puff up in anger. "I could use a science-kicking assery-engineer to help me out here."

Gaige huffed and tried not to stamp the ground, claiming again that she wasn't a kid. But by now Axton wasn't listening, having pried off the main cover and frowned, looking away and grumbling another swear. So Gaige hopped up beside him and peered inside: the mess of burnt, melted and fused wires proved that the entire turret was irreparable. It was enough to make her moan and swear herself, and she realised too late that the commando could hear her. His eyebrows shot upwards, and she looked away.  
"Yeah, I can't fix that." She said lamely. He sighed heavily in the snow.  
"Nothing for it then." He mumbled, and began stripping apart the broken turret. "Maya, could you gimme a hand with this?" He hefted the upside down gun onto its side, and the siren began to lift it with a phaselock.

"You're not making me take this to the graveyard, are you Axton?" she asked playfully, and for a moment he looked horrified that it had even been suggested.  
"Hell no!" and he jerked his head towards a rickety bridge. "Clappie says there's a quick-change station over there. I can upload a request to Dahl to have the whole thing reset. Just means having to rebuild her again over time."

Gaige turned away from the pair, crossing her arms under her chest and walking back towards the bounty board. Soon enough, she mused, she would be the only one without a special skill available. Sure, she had already proved to be able to pepper a bullymong with fire or shoot a raving bandit, but she was beginning to feel more and more out of place. She had little to offer as a Vault Hunter, and her familiar robot from Eden-5 was out of reach. Alone, wanted and on the run, without a familiar face from before.  
"Eff my life." She grumbled.

"Aw, cheer up, kid." Gaige looked up to see a collection of parts in a large hand. A spare, blackened digistruct battery and the magnetic couplings from the broken turret. Axton winked. "Might help you get that robot buddy of yours back in the fight." Gaige was quiet for a long moment, before reaching out and accepting the pieces.

"You won't be calling me kid when Deathtrap takes to the battlefield you know." She challenged, beginning to feel the familiar rise inside her – the promise of engineering and building, and Deathtrap sweeping behind her. Axton hooked his thumbs in his pockets and chuckled.  
"I'll hold you to that." He said simply, and wandered off. A clean, unmodified, vanilla Dahl deck hanging from his belt. Gaige looked down at parts donated from the dead turret before popping open her metal bicep.

"Let's get to work."


	2. How ya like me now?

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 2 – How ya like me now?**

* * *

"But Minion, you're my minion!" Claptrap tapped the top of his boxy frame before swivelling around on his wheel, crossing his spindly limbs behind his body and beginning a militant pacing. "And it is against Minion Union Rule number five hundred and seventy two to request _anything_ from your High Lord and Master Claptrap. At least until you've collected several dozen brown stones." The android stopped wheeling back and forth in the snow and spun around sharply. "Is this getting into that fleshy brain meat of yours? Because if not, I'll be overjoyed to repeat it!"

Gaige waved her mismatched hands back and forth, a feeling of icy anger forming in her stomach. This was already the fourth time that Claptrap had chanted "rule five-seven-two", and she was growing closer to bringing her prosthetic down onto the robot like a ringing alarm clock. And if she'd break a few fingers, she'd have some flashy yellow steel to reconstruct them from.

"Look, just... shuddup and listen to me." She produced Axton's old digistruct battery and waved it in front of the robot's lens-like optic. "All Cl4p-tp models have a digistruct tray – I've seen you butting yours into the Fast Travel station last night." Her voice had begun to dip into her most threatening tone (because when she would require cocoa and space to work, this was the most effective way to get what she needed). Claptrap seemed to shrink down and started blabbering wordlessly. His wheel turned from side to side, trying to look for an exit. "I just want you to charge _this_ –", and she held the blackened battery against his optic, "- back up to a hundred percent."

The robot pinched it between his flat digits before swivelling his lens back up to the mechromancer's face.

"But then I'd have to _woooooooork_!" It was the most pitiful whine she'd ever heard. Except for the time Marcie Holloway didn't get the seat next to that foreign exchange boy. But that was buried (in a very messy coffin) with the rest of her past, and Claptrap had begun to wriggle back and forth desperately. "I've done my work!" he cried, voice higher than normal. "I even saved all of you! Who else pulled you out of the snow?!"

"Salvador did!" She still vaguely remembered an iron grip around one of her ankles before being pulled out of the snow bank. Claptrap ceased his fidgeting for a moment.  
"Ahh yes, Scary Minion." The robot nodded thoughtfully. "I told him to do that."  
Gaige narrowed her eyes and gripped the robot's tray, forcefully pulling it open and dropping the digistruct battery inside. The robot made a noise of surprise.  
"Just charge this, or _I'll_ tell him what you did with his new favourite gun." For once, Claptrap went stock still for a long moment, before snapping his tray shut and shaking back and forth. The tray popped open again: the battery glowing a clean blue.  
"Always happy to help one of my loyal minions, who knows the value of keeping a secret!" chirped the robot.

Gaige said nothing, instead pulling her torn sleeve back down and shoving the battery inside her prosthetic limb. A soft hum began to power along her arm. She flexed her claws. The mechromancer grinned maniacally.  
"It's alive!" she crowed.

* * *

Captain Flynt was part-man, part bull and part septic tank – a towering brute that waded through a deck of fire like he was strolling down the garden path. As the Vault Hunters had climbed up the flash-frozen junk, Flynt himself had goaded the team into giving themselves up. He also happened to breathe exclusively through his mouth, and every taunt and curse had dramatic pauses as he stopped to inhale. Maya collected a rampaging bandit in her phaselock, just as Salvador blasted his shotgun at point blank range and catapulted the hapless bruiser over the edge of the cliff.

"El Capitan Flynt's bandits are a sorry lot!" roared Salvador, slamming a fresh collection of shells into his weapon. Maya had merely shrugged elegantly, not a hair out of place.  
"Let's see how far you can throw him from the top, gunzerker." She replied.

But as Claptrap's Minions (as they were announced) stood across the deck of the Soaring Dragon, the massive Flynt threw himself down hard enough to shake the frozen ship's foundations. He stalked the arena, slow and sure footed as Axton rolled grenades underneath him and Zer0 took pot-shots from a vantage point. Flames were spewing up from vents, and only an enraged Salvador was reckless enough to vault across them, firing a pair of weapons and howling in Spanish. Flynt himself lifted a bloodied tree trunk of an arm, but still managed to swat the stunted man back down across the deck. Salvador bounced before sliding to his knee and continued firing.

"You're gonna regret that... Grinder!" Flynt growled, panting heavier than when he had begun the skirmish. With a speed that didn't seem to fit his size, the bandit leader reared back and charged across the flaming deck towards Salvador and Axton. Both men began to back up and fire, but with a scream and a leap, he was already upon them. Just as he swung backwards with both arms, a heavy, metal claw reached out and plucked him from behind. Flynt wriggled in the air for an eerie moment before hearing a voice chirp behind him.

"Go long, bot!"

Without winding up, the hulking Deathtrap flung Captain Flynt out across the Southern Shelf. He hung in the air a few second before landing without a sound amongst the freezing waters. The deck of the ship was silent for a moment, save for the jets of flame that were beginning to run out of gas. Gaige spun on her foot to face her fellow Vault Hunters, brimming with glee and satisfaction. The boxy robot hovered behind her for a moment before disappearing in a burst of unstable digital data.  
"How ya like me now?" she asked. Axton recovered first.  
"You're hip's stuck out too much, but other than that, pretty bad ass." Her grin didn't fade as Salvador laughed wickedly at the situation, but she brought her leg back and eased her jutting hip all the same.

* * *

Moxxi was having a good business day, thanks mainly to the new siren sitting at the bar. Maya had only ordered one bottle and was taking her time sipping from it, listening with rapt attention as Moxxi would grin and tip her top hat, telling tales of Pandora's other siren. Ever since the Vault Hunter had sat down, drink sales had gone up, and she was sure to keep her new customer there as long as she could. It wasn't hard to see why – Maya's combat suit was tight, and from the staring going on, her ass on the stool was pretty tight, too. So, Moxxi would cock her head and cross her arms under her hefty chest, smiling as she sold another drink to a customer who was desperate to stand next to the two women.

"So then, Lilith would appear like a clap of thunder. And all those bad ass boys just evaporated from the sight of her. True story."  
"So this Lilith. She could, what... phase walk, you say? How did she manage to make explosions?" Maya was concentrating too much to notice another settler stand next to her, dumbly miming for another drink. Moxxi only smiled and tucked the payment between her breasts before focusing back on her latest business venture.  
"Get comfy, sugar, and I'll tell you all that I know."

Scooter's garage, Gaige had meanwhile decided, looked like an orphanage from a tragic echo-net movie. There were shelves upon shelves of parts – rusted, broken, the half used and the thoroughly abused. Anything that could come near "acceptable" was useless to her anyhow. The only thing she found that looked remotely cared for was an old nudie magazine in a cardboard box – she shoved it back into place without a second glance. Their guiding Angel may have called Scooter a "savant with machinery" but he was missing more than just a few chromosomes.

Downstairs, the "genius at work" was discussing the complexity of the Catch-a-Ride system to Axton.  
"I'm 'on explain this to you slowly, kay? You can only digistruct saved cars and pimento tacos. It aint voodoo magic what runs these babies, man." Axton scrubbed a hand down his face.  
"I'm just sayin', we're five people. We kept having to stop and change seats with each other. It was the longest race in history." Scooter blinked slowly.  
"... that a problem?"

Mercifully, it was the assassin that stepped in and tried reasoning. Zer0 moved fluidly from the corner of the room, appearing between Axton and Scooter. His scratched helmet turned from the commando to the mechanic.  
"We were just too slow. If we had more vehicle seats, Reiss might have made it." Axton's tattooed brow furrowed, but haiku's and declarations seemed to bounce off Scooter. He scratched his temple with his oily wrench and shook his head.

"Naw, man. Them cars is as fast as you're gonna get on this planet. You try sticking another seat in there, you gonna need a cage, a counterweight, I dunno. Something to stop you barrelling on out if you hit a jump. Nah, you just gonna have to take it in turns to ride my babies." Scooter smiled demurely and threw his hands down. "I know – it's hard to see someone else havin' fun in my runners. But unless you find yourself a bigger car out there to add to the system, ya'll are gonna have to use Fast Travel or take turns drivin'."

Axton huffed but nodded, brushing past Scooter and taking the stairs two at a time. The mechanic looked only mildly confused when he turned back around and found the enigmatic assassin had already left without a trace.  
"Friggin' Vault Hunters, man. Not the brightest spark in the Stalkers gut shield."

Gaige patted a broken capacitor and cooed, motherly calling it a poor, tormented baby as Axton came up behind her.  
"Found anything we can use yet?" He leaned back against a shelf, crossing his arms and looking over the collection of odds and ends.  
"Nothing useful, unless you wanna fling tetanus pieces at the bad guys." She replied, turning around and copying the commandos pose. For his part, Axton hummed thoughtfully.  
"That might be fun."  
"Pft, as much fun as throwing turrets and floating death robots?"  
"Ahh, you got me there." A silent moment lapsed around them, and Gaige finally asked what she had been wondering since they realised they were "one person too many."

"So, what now, commando?"

Axton scratched his chin with his thumb and thought for a moment.  
"We gather what info we can. Equip, set out, find this Roland guy, kick ass, take names, find treasure and kill Jack. And if we have time after, dessert." Gaige tried not to chuckle, but her bowed head and shaking shoulders began to give her away.  
"I bet that's your answer to everything."  
"If you can't shoot it or flip a coin, it works pretty well, yeah."  
"And what about being one person too many?" she asked, jerking her head down towards Scooter. The mechanic had finished sticking his finger in his ear and wiggling it around. Axton made a face.

"Ugh – we're not counting on his maths, that's for damned sure." He jerked his head and walked outside, Gaige trailing behind. The afternoon sun was filtering through the streets of Sanctuary, and dust motes floated through the air. Around the corner they heard a hearty bellowing laugh from Zed's clinic, before Salvador roared "Surgery is fun!"

"Well, Sal's having a good time." Axton commented, before hooking his thumbs back inside his pockets and turning to the mechromancer. "You're worried about being left behind? Don't be. You're too damned good, too damned deadly and too much fun." Gaige looked away, feeling a swell of pride and embarrassment in her chest before glancing back up.  
"You say that to all the awesome women I bet." Axton's head fell back and he laughed heartily before winking.  
"Maybe. The point is, we're all Vault Hunters. So, we'll do what it takes. If it means pairing off or taking shifts, we'll do just that. We've got the Fast Travel network and our legs aren't broken yet."

As if on que, Salvador stomped out of Zed's clinic as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him. A bloodied chunk of eridium was in his hand as he passed by the commando and mechromancer. He rounded the corner to their new headquarters, yelling for Tannis all the way. Axton leaned down and added "I'd like to have someone else do field surgery than Sal, if push comes to shove." Gaige raised an eyebrow and made a show of snapping her steel claws.  
"You sure about that?"  
"Just warm 'em up first. Deal?" He turned and stuck his hand out towards her. Gaige stopped and hummed, looking for all the world like she was choosing between ice cream or fudge. Finally she stuck her smaller hand into his and shook it.  
"Deal."

Axton grinned and nodded, taking his hand back and steering them towards headquarters, where Tannis could be heard talking about deeper connections.  
"Besides," he began. "Gotta have the most bad ass engineer around to help me rebuild my turret." Gaige's eyes widened and she looked up – a delighted madness beginning to show on her features.  
"You should check out long-bow technology. Ohhh, or the Dalh Sentry software upgrades!" Axton stood aside and let the mechromancer walk in first.  
"Oh yeah – you and me are gonna show 'em all how it's done, lady."


	3. Science and Ass-Kickery

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 3 – Science and Ass-Kickery**

* * *

It was mid afternoon in Moxxi's Place, and two stools were pulled up to the bar. Both figures leaned forward with their arms folded, elbows resting against the edge. Neither occupant reached the ground – their legs dangling inches above the floor. Moxxi finished pouring a pint of rakk-ale for Sir Hammerlock before turning to the pair. "Anything I can get for you two sugars?"

Salvador peered up from beneath his prominent brow. "Bring me the strongest drink you have, señora." He replied gruffly, and Moxxi smiled before turning to the other stool and asking again. Gaige looked up from under her goggles, eyes lidded and speaking in a tough, low voice.  
"Bring me the same, and make it a double." She rumbled, and Moxxi chuckled before promising to bring her something sweet.

Maya could be a stick in the mud, Gaige decided. She had built a robotic weapon of mass destruction, driven a runner and was a consenting adult (if she wanted), but the siren had made Moxxi promise not to sell "any of the good stuff" to the mechromancer. Which was a bit of a shame, because she imagined getting tipsy would help a lot around Sanctuary. As if on cue, a plate of something mysterious was sat in front of Salvador and she blanched.

"What the _slag_." She muttered, bewildered. Salvador grinned and picked up a bone with his bare hand.  
"You would be amazed what tastes like chicken on Pandora!" Gaige sat dumbfounded before Moxxi set her drink down, and she took it outside without excusing herself. Maybe it was time to start pirating Echo-sims or downloading the newest volume of Crime Frog. How hard could it be if they were giving away "This Just In" at the centre of town anyway? Gaige adjusted the goggles above her eyes and regarded the dusty streets.  
"Time to do a little research." She said in a low, serious voice.

* * *

She arrived at the Echo-log stall and promptly began to choke as her drink slipped down the wrong way. Her fellow Vault Hunters were, unsurprisingly, wanted criminals. Her own poster was absent (which she wasn't sure how to feel about), but it was the long list of charges leveled against Salvador that caught her eye. A shopping list of crimes decorated two posters taped together, including manslaughter, theft and arson, right down to profanity. Cannibalism also ranked towards the bottom. She distantly remembered how he called her legs candy canes in the snow, and how he had just voraciously begun to tear into the hot plate of mystery.

"Uhh, ex_cuse_ me?" The lanky salesman leaned over his stall, snapping her back to reality. She could feel her drink dribbling down her chin.  
"I got enough trouble selling these log's without a... _special child_ loitering outside my stall, kid." Gaige recovered quickly, jabbing a finger down at the posters decorating the stall.  
"Hey! Don't you know who I am?" The seller made a show of leaning back over and looking over the posters before glancing back up.  
"No." Gaige wanted to throw the rest of her drink at him.

"I'm the God-damned Mechromancer! Builder of bad ass robots, blaster of bandits, woman of science and ass-kickery!"  
"Wow – did you practice that speech?"  
"N-no." '_Jerk_'. She crossed her arms and glared, wishing for a way to snap her claws and shock the rip-off pirate. "What the hell's all this noise?" Gaige stiffened as Axton stood behind her, arms crossed similar to hers and brow arched. The echo-log seller tapped his bench and huffed.  
"Hey Vault Hunter – you responsible for this kid?" Axton's eyes widened and he slipped between them, planting his hands either side of the current echo-recorder and leaning closer.

"You damned _idiot_!" he hissed. "Do you want to get us all killed?" Axton's face twisted with fear and he glanced behind him – Gaige frowned but caught a quick wink he sent her way.  
"She's the freakin' _Mechromancer_. You piss her off, you'll disappear off the face of the planet. You and anyone sad enough to be a witness!" The settler's eyes began to dart between the pair and he began to lean back from them, trembling.  
"Listen!" Axton thumped the stall with his finger, whispering loudly. "I'll try and smooth things over, but just remember – you treat her like your life's on the line. 'Cause it is." The salesman felt his knees give out and he began to slide down the wall, but the commando had already turned and put his hand on the mechromancer's back, steering her away.

"You. Effing. Rule, Ax." Gaige was grinning broadly, nudging the man in his ribs with her mechanical elbow.  
"A little softer there, missy. And yeah – I know I do." Axton smirked as she rolled her eyes, but he shoved his hand inside his pocket and produced some money. "Here – head to Marcus and pick something out for yourself." She turned and eyed the wad of bills, looking sceptically upwards.  
"Gee – anything I want? This is all so sudden..." Axton simply waved his hand dismissively and nodded.

"Yeah yeah, you're very cute. But we're heading to Frostburn Canyon and this Firehawk guy is an unknown. So get something suitable and hurry back – Maya's been eager to go for a while now." Gaige snatched the money and vaulted down the stairs to Marcus Munitions. The commando muttered a quiet "you're welcome" to himself before meeting the siren at the Fast Travel station.  
"You spoil that girl." She said simply. He raised his hands in defence.  
"You're just jealous I'm not buying you a gun."

* * *

A little over a week ago, Gaige had come third in a science fair at school. She called her classmate and rival (the all around rich bitch) Marcie Holloway out on the results, and the ensuing argument ended in Deathtrap "exploding" the other girl. A traumatised Gaige had to call her Dad to make a creative distraction, share a tearful goodbye and hop on a shuttle to Pandora to escape arrest.

A few days after that, the mechromancer (as she had dubbed herself, because if Salvador could call himself a "gunzerker" she should get a kick ass title too) brought her pistol to bear on a wild bullymong. The ferocious beast took almost a full clip of bullets before a lucky shot landed in its tiny head and it fell dead in the snow. Gaige's heart was left thumping in her chest – partly from the frightening beast, and a little because she had actually raised her pistol and fired it at something. But she was too relieved to see it finally stop to sit and stress over how she had killed it.

A day and a half later, she had encountered Pandora's bandits. Skinny and wearing convict masks and orange pants, sitting around idly. For a long moment she wasn't sure what would happen – and then Maya trapped one in her phase lock, and the camp became a frothing, howling stampede. Even though the Vault Hunters were clearly armed, a shirtless bandit rushed forwards with a rusted axe held high. He screeched about stripping their flesh and wearing their bones, and only stopped when Zer0 raised his side arm and fired. Bandits were like any other creature on Pandora – feral, territorial, and deadly. Even worse, some of them were armed. Gaige had no problem with shooting first, afterwards.

Presently, almost a week after stowing away in a Hyperion train, she was loitering in Marcus Kincaid's store, listening to the merchant preach the value of Maliwan elementals.

"Trust me, young lady – corrosive elements will work wonders for you. They eat through those bastard Hyperion loaders and will melt a bandit in seconds." The vendor smiled broadly, gold tooth showing in the dim light as he presented a sub machine gun. Gaige flipped up her Echo-net screen and inspected the weapon in detail.

"It's okay, but, I'm more into shock weapons." She began, letting the holographic window vanish. Shock weapons could make bandits and jerk echo-log salesmen sparkle. "I'm a lady of science – me an' electricity are long time partners in crime." She was about to say that they were "friends with benefits" but she had no intention of telling Marcus that. Instead, she waited while the grumpy merchant hummed and took back the gun before presenting a sniper rifle.

"Have you ever seen what an electric bullet to the brain does to a person?" he asked, Cheshire grin back in place. "With the state of the art sight, you'll have the best view within a dozen miles." Gaige frowned but accepted the heavy rifle, peeking down the sights and treating herself to a close up of Marcus' nose hair. She flinched and pushed the rifle away.

"Too much gun. And way, _way_ too much detail." By now, Marcus was growing impatient with the Vault Hunter and thumped his hands on the desk.  
"Wha-at, you say you want something flashy and techie but you don't like the finest weapons this side of Tartarus Station? Just buy something or get out already."  
"Well if you're as good as you say, why in the hell is it impossible to find something small and kick ass?!" Marcus roared laughing, clapping a hand across his eyes and going red as Gaige began to fume.  
"Oh, the mighty Vault Hunter wants to prove that big things come in small packages, does she? Well, I'll tell you what..."

He bent over and began looking under the bench – his rear end shaking back and forth as he pushed stock around.  
"Hyperion may be a bunch of bastard skaglicks, but they know how to make a damned good weapon. Aha!" He brought out a hi tech grenade and held it up like a small flag.  
"You know how grenade mods work I assume? Well, plug this little beauty into your Echo-device and you'll tear bad guys apart from the inside out with Singularity bombs." Gaige felt her jaw drop and she lifted the mod up to inspect it. Eventually, she could only ask one question – how?  
Marcus grinned again, gold tooth sparkling. "Give them a go and see – if you're a little lady of science, you'll work them out soon enough."

* * *

Frostburn Canyon was, as Maya put it, a shit hole. It seemed to be a cross between a glacier and a mudslide, with flaming bandit corpses pinned to signs. Spider ants had also taken up residence in the earth, and together with the Bloodshots and Vault Hunters, soon turned the land into chaos. Their Guardian Angel A.I. kept pointing them in the right direction, but it was a slow, bloody trek to the Firehawk's lair. Maya's phase locking powers were beginning to adapt to Pandora's terrain, and she was starting to work together better with Gaige – trapping enemies in the air for Deathtrap to slash.

Axton meanwhile had made it over the next hill. He dropped to one knee and brought his rifle to bear, firing a volley of rounds into the lumbering badass' shins. The bandit slipped in the mud and crashed forwards, thrashing a deformed arm out to catch himself. It sunk forward into the slick earth, pushing back up slowly and hissing. The scarred mask raised itself in time to see a sabre turret finish unfolding on the ground. A barrel locked into place a few scant inches away. The commando had already lifted himself from his kneel, patting the heavy weapon like a pet.

"Meet the missus," he said, before the belt rattled and the chain gun opened fire.

Gaige only had to watch a handful of screaming midgets get pulled towards her grenade before she decided that she loved singularity mods. After the explosion threw them apart, flaming and shrieking, she was ready to build a monument to them. She could do it too – and it could draw in and liquefy any heretics who dared question her new faith. "I am _such_ a bad ass mofo!" she yelled victoriously, holding another grenade high above her head in clasped hands. "And you will _all_ worship my 'nades, or feel their gravitational pulling wrath!" As she reared back and threw another bomb overhead, she was sure Maya looked at her like she had lost her mind – the truth was, Gaige had found something both scientific and destructive. And if she looked like an insane madman, so be it. Besides, Axton would probably agree that singularity mods were better than...

The mechromancer's laughs died down and she licked her lips, looking around the muddy, war torn hill side. "... where's Axton?" Maya narrowed her eyes and looked around, taking in the burning and dismembered Bloodshots. There was no sign of the commando. She looked back up to see Gaige squinting out at the war zone. '_Damnit._' She thought, and called out to their team member. There was a quiet, pregnant pause before they heard an automatic winding noise at the top of the hill, followed by a heavy machine gun firing. Both women shared a quick glance before they climbed up to the crest of the muddy hill.

They staggered to a stop just in time to see Axton reload his rifle. A massive, headless bandit fell over, revealing his Dahl turret winding to a stop. The commando grinned and relaxed, nodding up at the pair.  
"So. How ya like me now?" he called out in greeting.

Maya shook her head and chuckled, strolling over towards him. "So this is what you and Gaige have been working on?" she asked, crossing her arms and smirking. "Just a couple of big kids with fancy toys."  
"It's okay, Maya – you can say it. Sweetheart here is awesome." He answered, before winking at the mechromancer. "Ain't that right?" But Gaige could only nod before slowly walking towards the older pair. Her mind was still back on Axton leaning casually against his "missus" – riffle gripped low and grinning easily, while a wisp of smoke floated up from his sabre turret. "_So. How ya like me now?_"

She couldn't stop herself thinking it – she liked what she saw quite a bit.

* * *

Handsome Jack slowly spread his arms out and moved side to side, keeping his balance to the swaying beneath him before slipping and reaching out quickly. He immediately hissed and shook his hand – who knew a pony made of diamonds was so good at scratching the skin? It seemed like a design flaw over at the genetics lab.  
"Jack?" The President of Hyperion sighed and stretched his arms back out.  
"Little busy, pumpkin. Very important work going on here." The voice continued in the empty office.  
"I just wanted you to know that the Vault Hunters have left Frostburn Canyon. The Firehawk has moved to Sanctuary, and... we've got confirmation that it was Lilith."

Jack crowed and leaned back, throwing his fists up. Beneath him, the diamond pony stamped a hoof and shuffled back and forth.  
"Oh, now see, I knew it. I freaking KNEW it!" he cried, pumping his fists. "I mean, I just see these things for what they are – bandit smoke and mirrors. I freaking knew that bitch was still alive."  
"You knew she was posing as an infamous bounty hunter?"  
"Not now, Angel. Wasn't someone in the company handling an investigation into that siren?"  
"Yes, it was Bla-"  
"Blake! Get in here!"

Jack crossed his arms over his chest, wobbling from side to side as Butt Stallion slowly moved to face the door. Soon, Hyperion's Vice President Blake strolled in, hands tucked behind his back and smiling pleasantly. A tall, rail-thin man with a benevolent air about him. He stood with his shoulders back as Jack's legs dangled inches off the floor, either side of the diamond pony.  
"Yes sir?"  
"What happened with that bandit who was selling Echo devices about that old Vault Hunter siren, Lilith?" Blake gave a dramatic sigh and looked apologetic.

"I'm afraid it was a dead end, sir. The man who contacted us, a Mister Boll, hasn't been heard of since we relayed instructions to leave his collected Echo logs in specified dead drops." Blake scratched his eyebrow idly. "Furthermore, we cannot find even a trace that this Boll character existed – I imagine it was a simple bandit wishing to claim the bounty you had placed."  
"Oh, now see, that's the scope of their vision, Blake. No imagination, originality, no-whoa." Jack swayed back and forth as the pony beneath him restlessly shifted, before he patted the hard head and shushed it. "Easy, Butt Stallion. Oh, and they've got nothing better to do than waste the time of important men. You're dismissed, by the way."

Blake smiled and tipped his head forward in parting as Jack began snapping his fingers next to the pony's head and coaxing it to turn towards the Echo-screen in his office.  
"Angel, show me what you've got from today." A series of images filled the screen, each one enlarging for a few seconds before moving to the next. A scene of bandits being slaughtered, the commando and a turret firing at a target off camera, the blue-haired siren trapping spider ants, a still of both sirens conversing.

"They didn't find Roland, did they?" Jack asked.  
"No, he was absent. We've since received a communication from the Bloodshot leader claiming to have captured him. He's asking for a ransom."  
"Of course his is, sweetheart. Prepare my usual offering." He replied, beginning to grow bored of the other pictures. Until, he saw –  
"Hey, hey! Who's this squirt?" The image froze on a young cyborg woman with a hulking robot, both of which were causing mass destruction around them.  
"She's from Eden-5. Scans from the Echo-net show she accidentally killed a fellow student and escaped authorities. She was stowing away on the train where she linked up with the members of your short list." Jack hummed and turned back to patting the diamond pony.

"She wants to be a Vault Hunter? Fine. Alert Hyperion Truth Broadcasting – set up a bounty on her head and add her to the roster with the others. Ain't that right, Butt Stallion?" The pony brayed.

* * *

Jeffery Blake locked his office and sat back in his chair, turning to look out at Pandora below the orbiting moon base. '_Dear God that man is a jackass._' He thought, before the Echo on his desk bleeped and digistructed a small note.

"_Loader #1340 successfully removed all traces of bandit Boll's camp. Will proceed to the Dahl 3__rd__ Brigade Memorial Dam to remove Bloodshot population once capture of Roland is confirmed. Override accepted: will self distruct if confronted with members from group: Vault Hunters." _

Blake smiled and tucked the note inside a nearby chute, watching it puff into the vacuum of space a moment later. He relaxed back into his chair. '_Damn I'm good_."


	4. Live from Pandora

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 4 – Live From Pandora**

* * *

'_Sup my subscribers. You've got Gaige coming to you live from Pandora! That's right – made it! And you're hearing me thanks to the magic of a last-gen Echo recorder... because that's the only type that they have on this Planet. It's pretty low tech, so I can't quite tell just how many of you have hung on, but I'm going to play it safe and assume you've tripled in number. Ahem._

_Finally got some spare time to sit down and give you an update about what's been going on. Except a lot of its hush-hush, and technically I'm in the middle of a civil war, so this is gonna be a bit censored. Okay? So basically, there's a guy called Jack who's a big blank, and he wants to blank everyone on Pandora... heh heh. That's... that's like, a double meaning there – it fits so well! Oh, but I'm in blanktuary, with the resistance here who calls themselves the Blank-son raid-blanks. Oh, and they're led by one of the original Vault Blankers from five years ago!_

_... y'know what? Fuck censorship. Let's start over._

_Pandora is... blanked up. Okay, I'll stop from here on out. But seriously, I can describe this planet, right? But if I clean up that description, it's not really a sentence. But hey, it's where all the action is for sure. So it's been about a week since I arrived and linked up with these guys. And a girl, sorry, gotta be accurate about this. Anyway – anyone who paid attention to my last echo... I. Totally. Succeeded. Vault hunter Gaige, the Mechromancer, baby! And I don't care what anyone thinks about that title. Because I'm a bad ass V.H. now. With other bad ass V.H's. Which I will now talk about._

_We've got an awesome gal named Maya – I'm not so sure I can go into a whole lotta detail about what she is, but let's just say she's got a way of making bad guys stand still for her. Not, like... not she's a harpy, though I'm kinda jealous of her long legs. But I'm pretty sure my chest is still bigger... anyhow! Without giving it away, there's only five others like her in the whole freakin' universe, so we've got odds better than an Irish Lotto winner. But I still suck at the slot machines. Oh yeah – I can gamble here. But I can't drink – thank Maya for that. Harsh, am I right?_

_We've also got a guy called Salvador who's actually a native of Pandora. He calls himself... ze Gunzerker! He vill eff you up, pendejo! ... That was my impression of him. Anyway, he's like that bull dog from next door back on Eden-5. He's short and hairy, but he'll rip your hand off if you're not careful. And just like that dog, he sometimes bites his own kind... it's a long story. I don't know the details. I don't want to know the details. Which means that __you shan't__ know the details._

_Next we have Zer0, who is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an awesome suit, wrapped in an annoying personality. I mean, he's cool and all but it's like talking to a ghost on the wall of a windy day. He's an assassin – complete with sword, sniper rifles and a big shiny mask that hides his face. But he's got the whole "lone wolf" thing going too – he talks in riddles and haikus, and he's missing a finger on each hand. "A sacrifice to my order to uphold the creeeeed." _

_...couldn't resist. Sorry again. Anyway, Zer0 doesn't say much or do much, he just turns invisible and snipes bad guys in the head. He's both awesome and a little dull. And scary. At the moment, him and Axton are driving all the way to a desolate part of Pandora called The Dust to hook up our Fast Travel network and meet up with the local mechanic's sister, to help us rescue one of the original Vault Hunters. Oh yeah – just another day for me, here. If anyone back home is hearing this – how's that maths test going? But anyway – yeah, Zer0 and Axton have been off the echo for hours now, and I'm bored as hell, but I can only imagine Ax's bored to death... I should probably explain who Axton is, hey?_

_Out of our little group, Axton effing rules. He's a commando from Dahl military who packed up and came here to kick ass, take names and have dessert. He's got this mother-screwing awesome turret too, and being the sophisticated engineer that I am, he's begged me to help him rebuild it. And I graciously allow him to be in my presence a lot while I do it. The fact that he's a hotter older guy is neither here nor there._

_I didn't just say that now... Damnit! How the hell do you make this... rewind and re-record... stupid... last gen tech! Gah! I'll have to threaten that idiot at the info booth to tell me how these things work. Maybe Tannis – I've seen here argue with one a lot. I think. It's arguing or angry phone sex... is this still recording? Oh for f-_

* * *

"Between all the blood, the dings and the misspelt curses, I'd swear you two just slaughtered some bandits and stole their ride." Maya cocked her hip out and stood back to admire the new vehicle that had been digistructed in Scooter's garage. The mechanic in question was scouring the vehicle like a man possessed, sliding underneath and making odd comments to himself.

"About two dozen when you add them all up." Axton said. The commando was leaning against a tool box and dumping sand out of his boot – his stubbled face was almost caked in dust and he was sweating on Zer0 returning with a drink from Moxxi's. "Ellie had the skeleton, I guess you could call it. She just made us tear off enough wheels and pieces to flesh it out a bit."  
"What's she like? Scooter's sister that is." Axton leaned closer and whispered, keeping his eyes on the mechanic.  
"Fleshed out quite a bit herself."

The technical was hoisted up on the lift and Scooter brought up his own Echo-screen – neither Vault Hunter had seen the mechanic look so alive and focused in the short time that they had known him. Zer0 returned with a pitcher of water and their fellow team members while Scooter was still inspecting the under carriage. The garage had almost filled with an intense kind of life that was absent before, but it took Salvador one word to break the atmosphere when he saw the new technical: "Dibs!"

Gaige meanwhile had settled beside Maya and Axton, her focus switching between the heavy vehicle and the gulping commando. When Axton finally finished swallowing and dumped a cup of water over his dusty head, the mechromancer turned away and asked casually how the trip went.  
"I'm guessing you were bored senseless without me out there, eh?"

The commando chuckled and shook his wringing hair.  
"A lot of swapping seats and challenging each other to moving shots, I can tell you. You two ladies missed nothing – they call it The Dust for a damned good reason." Axton leaned back and opened his own Echo-screen, flicking through the blades until a map surfaced on the hologram.  
"A few bits and pieces – the whole thing's more useful as a nexus. Up north you've got an exit to the highlands – over here you've got a train car to Lynchwood. Ah, and here's the kicker." He tapped the bottom and the map changed, from a random landmarked patch to a neat and tidy maze.

"Hyperion's got a prison here – get this. They call it 'The Friendship Gulag'." Maya screwed her face up as she leaned in closer to the map.  
"You and Zer0 actually let yourselves in to look around?"  
"Never hurts to know thy enemy. Besides, picked up something new that they've started hanging up." Axton tapped his storage deck and a rolled up poster materialized into existence. He swung it around in front of Gaige. "Don't say I don't bring you things now." The mechromancer's eyes widened and she took it, mumbling a "thank you" before opening the poster up. Her eyes face quickly changed to a look of confusion and anger before she growled and stomped away.

"Uhh... what was that?" Maya asked. Axton swallowed some another mouthful and switched screens – a Hyperion Wanted poster shone out with Gaige's face decorating the profile. The bounty was $820 billion, for "stealing and developing plans for robotic weapons of mass destruction." Maya shook her head.  
"She's a kid – she shouldn't be here, she ought to be worried about kissing boys and drinking milk shakes."  
"If she wasn't here, she'd be in jail already for what happened back at her school. I don't wanna think of what'd happen to her there."  
"You think much about that then, Axton?"  
"Nope." The commando pushed himself off the tool box and wandered over to the technical. "I don't think about what-if's. Just what's going on now. And how long is this gonna take, Scooter?"

Scooter's nose was buried in his projected Echo-net screen, whistling low as he read the statistics – the Catch-a-Ride system was a mess of details to all of the team, but the mechanic seemed to be fluent in this foreign language.  
"I gotta hand it to Ellie," he began, pulling a rag free from his back pocket and wiping his hands. The Echo-net screen vanished in a wink and he turned to the bandit technical sitting on his hoist. "She knows how to trick out a fuggin' awesome piece o' machinery. And I reckon you'll get at least seven pimento taco's in a glove box this big."

"Good!" Lilith was standing on the top gangway of the garage, hands on the railing and looking down at the assembled Vault Hunters. "Then you killer's can get your asses to the Bloodshot Stronghold and bring Roland back already!"

* * *

_Okay, fresh Echo 'cause I'm still working out how to re-record over these things. Guess what? Hyperion wants yours truly for eight hundred and twenty __billion_ _dollars. Yeah! Little Gaige is the most wanted Vault Hunter on all of Pandora! But you know what they're charging me with? Stealing plans and building robotic weapons of mass doom. Hel-lo! I stole nothing! I frickin' designed and built Deathtrap from scratch, damnit! My awesome cement-shattering arm? All me, baby! My floating robot of destructive awesomeness? Child of my engineering creation! And __still__ no one bothers to point out that Marcie Holloway stole the DT plans from me! May she rest in peace, but still! And now Hand-job Jack wants to target __me_ _with a bounty for trumped up charges? Well you listen up Hyperion – bring. It. On! I got a robot without legs and he can still kick your ass! I got a siren, a gun nut, an assassin and a hot commando to back me up! __And__ I got a whole heap of Singularity bombs with your name on them!_

_... and I just called Axton hot again, didn't I? __Damnit!__ You-I just-...screw you! I'm going to go sit in our new awesome kick ass car until we're ready to go take the fight to any bandit and robot dumb enough to cross us! _

* * *

Zer0 sprinted along fractured cement at inhuman speed. His blade was a digital flash as it bisected both Bloodshots and Hyperion loaders. Stomping behind him, Salvador had a shotgun and assault rifle out together, gleefully mopping up anyone the assassin left wounded. The last hour had been a disorientating experience. They had driven up in the snowy borders of Three Horns while it was still dark, climbed a dilapidated dam to the peak and came out of the top into the warm sunlight of morning. Pandora's days were shorter, but rushing to chase down Roland's kidnapping Constructor soon reduced the Vault Hunters to instinct. The bloody fighting between the bandits and robots around them were back ground noise. A giant, gold-plated monument to Marcus Kincaid completed the scene.

'_This is officially a fucked up day_' was a thought shared between all of the team. Zer0 continued to lead the charge, pulling off an acrobatic flip and dropping a grenade in mid-jump. A group of Bloodshots were crippled from within, and Salvador killed at least two of them by stomping down harshly as he stampeded on, screaming for more slaughter.

To Axton, the commando wasn't used to losing – they had come to take Roland from a group of bandits. For Hyperion to sneak in from nowhere and snatch their target wasn't fair. And as far as he was concerned, in warfare, you weren't allowed to play unfairly. Unless it was very, very awesome. After all – he was an expert at that.

Maya was urged on by Lilith – the older siren was a fountain of knowledge about their kind, but she was also clearly unhinged and twisted. Failing to bring her old boyfriend back seemed unwise, plain and simple. And for Gaige, the thrill of watching Deathtrap destroy Hyperion loaders and charging alongside her fellow Vault Hunters was enough. Roland's rescue would be a bonus prize – wrecking a Hyperion constructor would be better than playing with Singularity mods. '_These guys didn't do too bad, monument-making wise_' she thought idly, as the golden Marcus grinned down benevolently on the valley below.

The team passed a malfunctioning Fast Travel station before they skidded to a halt, breathing heavily and reloading.  
"Any suggestions before going in?" Maya panted, flexing her hand and feeling her sable siren's marks pulsing. Salvador spat and nodded, grinning wolfishly.  
"Shoot them in their little red eyes! I've killed many Hyperion before hopping on the train, amigos." Axton nodded and withdrew his Dahl storage deck, pressing himself against the edge of the dam's brace and peeking around the corner.  
"Let's show this guy how the new Vault Hunters do things." The remaining four raised their weapons and nodded, before throwing themselves into the fray.

* * *

_Okay, let's try this again. New recorder once more, because the local Pandora custom is to record a single entry onto a whole Echo-device and leave them scattered around... there must be a factory churning these things out somewhere. _

_So! Current situation. Me and my four team mates rescued Roland, who leads the local resistance... yeah. __The__ Roland. One of the original four vault hunters! He's still pretty cool, even if he did go and get himself caught by bandits. When nature calls, I guess even legendary solders gotta answer. So, we're all back and resting up at H.Q. now, and Roland's calling us all soldiers and planning the "next move against Jack." Which is business as usual now, 'cause as Axton says, we can't just go ahead and hunt a Vault without that jerk getting in our way first. So, priority wise goes, it's get Jack, get Vault, profit. But we're gonna profit a little bit here and there on the way: the bad ass Vault Hunters are well known now, and people are popping up with all odd jobs suddenly. Some of them are okay, but some are just effing insane. I'm still tossing up which is better right now. And like Ax said, he left the military once already to be his own person, so he's not thrilled to go back to being called soldier just yet. _

_... ugh, I've mentioned Axton way, way too much by now, haven't I? And I still don't know if I even __can_ _re-edit these Echo's. _

_Y'know what? Forget uploading these – they're too amateur, too personal and too much like that crazy Tannis lady downstairs. I think she might have the right idea though. I'll just wait and scatter these around some desolate field somewhere, so that in years to come when I'm known as a sexy, awesome Vault Hunter who saved the planet, I can force some sucker to go and collect them on a whim. But in the mean time, I'm going to get a little self-satisfaction from another echo-collecting jerk right now._

_Mechromancer Gaige, signing off._

_... oh god, I think she's having angry phone sex with it again right now!_

* * *

Gaige waited until the salesman had his back turned, sorting through a case of Echo-recorders before quietly stalking up to the booth and waiting. As the clerk turned around and saw the mechromancer he dropped a recorder in fright. She kept her tiny thrill of satisfaction in check, quirking her brow before leaving the rolled up poster on the bench.

"Do me a favour and pin this up for me, would ya?" She turned around and marched away without another word. The salesman stayed still until she rounded a corner and was out of sight, before he slowly unrolled the poster and read it. And re-read it. The words "mass destruction" jumped out at him, as well as the eight hundred billion plus bounty. A faint, warm fluid began to trickle down his leg.


	5. Anarchy

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 5 - Anarchy**

* * *

Gaige wore a look of distaste as she took in the ruined motel. "The Happy Pig?" she asked aloud, spreading her mismatched arms wide and sweeping them across her surroundings. "Someone, somewhere, decided to build a motel in the middle of skag territory, surrounded by steam pumps, and they call it 'The Happy Pig'? What the eff?"

Axton pulled his hatchet from his belt and sat down on a nearby chair. A radio blaring another ad for Maliwan Munitions lay across his lap, and he began prying the case apart with the blade, humming. "Don't like piggies, hon?" he asked absently, oblivious to the younger woman sticking her tongue out.

"Me an' pork don't agree with one another. Too tough and it tastes like old paint probably would." The commando's head went back and he laughed heartily before pointing towards her with the handle of the small axe.  
"Be sure to tell Tannis that – you know what she thinks of pig meat." Gaige crossed her arms and sniffed dramatically as her voice lowered.  
"Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest."  
"A star is born." The mechromancer took a theatrical bow and a silence lapsed between them, before she looked up and asked: "What's a sycophant, anyway?"  
"No clue."

Salvador meanwhile had helped himself to one of the rooms of "The Happy Pig", returning a moment later with a crate under each arm. Loose packets of rations bounced around in one while dusty bottles of Rakk-ale clinked in the other. An opened bottle was dangling from his mouth and he would occasionally throw his head back to swallow from it. As the gunzerker threw the crates onto the back of their technical, he pulled the bottle from his mouth and saluted the sign with it.  
"Cheers to the bounty of The Happy Pig!" he hollered –apparently, Rakk-ale aged well.  
"Hey Sal – you know what a sycophant is?" Axton asked as he compared the stripped wires against each other.  
"Sure – howling bandits. We kill them all the time!"  
"No, not psychopaths, syco... eh, you probably got it right the first time."

Gaige stood on one of the monster-sized wheels of the bandit car and checked off the salvaged goods.  
"We got foo-er, edible stuffs, drinks, wiring, light bulbs and some blank paper for Claptrap. Is that the lot?" She hopped off the wheel and landed with a puff of dust. Overall the motel was such a miserable, random sight next to the Bloodshot stronghold that she was eager to leave. Axton rubbed his neck and threw the remains of the destroyed radio into a nearby pile of debris.  
"Scooter thinks we can power this place back up. We'll get a few vendors and the bounty board working – worth it, you think?" Before she could answer, Salvador finished his bottle and threw it behind him.

"If motel owners are dead and we it power back up, does that make us the new owners?" The commando and mechromancer exchanged a look before shrugging.  
"I guess so. It's your planet, Sal – you'd know more about that stuff than us." Axton replied. The gunzerker threw his hands up wide in front of the over-sized hog sign.  
"Salvador! Part-owner of The Happy Pig Motel!" he crowed, before turning to his fellow Vault Hunters and grinning giddily. "Let's do it!"

* * *

The furry bullymong collapsed with a gurgling heap in the snow, it's prized steam pump capacitor settling next to it. Axton picked it up and blew some frost off the edge before tucking it into his pack.  
"What is it with these guys and machine parts, anyway?" he said aloud, remembering how Knuckle-dragger wore Claptrap's optic around its tiny head like a dog-tag. "They gotta hang on to shiny trinkets for no good reason or something?" His ex-wife's diamond ring clinked idly against his old tags, unnoticed by all. Meanwhile, Salvador had finished reloading his rifle and smirked up at Gaige.  
"You're using the wrong weapon, little woman." He said, and she gaped openly for a moment. She was struck dumb at being called little by the stunted, shorter man, and more so at being told her choice of weaponry was _wrong_.

"You wanna explain that to me, bub?" she asked, not caring if she sounded as put out as she felt. But Salvador merely shrugged and pointed at her Jakobs revolver.  
"You miss a lot with this! You start off good, yes..." And he kicked the bullymong's arm over, revealing a nasty wound she had caused at the start. "...But then? Accuracy goes to hell. And you _charge_ in, shots going wide." Gaige still felt offended – the gunzerker was the last one to judge a person for "charging in" as he put it. But all Salvador did was lean back and point towards the frozen steam pump.

"Try shooting that tap, Chiquita." By now, Axton had come to stand beside the pair, and Gaige couldn't shake the feeling that she had been put on the spot. So, she did what felt natural – she gripped her revolver, took aim, and fired. The shot went wide, landing in a snow bank behind the station. She bit back a curse. Scientifically, it made no sense that her accuracy could start off good and diminish. And science was her bitch, Damnit.  
"It's cold out here – I'm shivering" she stubbornly answered, brushing some frost off her thin stockings. But Axton was frowning and Salvador was smirking and _God Damn it all_.

"Hang on - try reloading and taking the shot again." She squinted and held her pistol up.  
"It doesn't need to be reloaded." There were still five bullets in the chamber.  
"Just do it." She sighed and re-loaded the handgun, unable to shake off the feeling of disappointment in her shoulders, like she was coming down from a high. She took a careful aim and fired, neatly blasting the valve off the pump. Axton arched a brow.  
"That's... interesting."

Salvador shook his head in confusion – the gunzerker prided himself in knowing a weapon intimately. He had assumed the heavy pistol had too much recoil for the girl's thin arms, but now...?  
"I still say the weapon is wrong." He muttered, and as she reeled around and opened her mouth, the commando stood between them.  
"Hang on, I think I got this one..." He hooked his thumbs into his pockets and regarded the mechromancer.  
"So, you've just landed a shot. How's it feel?" Gaige screwed up her face but he motioned for her to continue.  
"Good, I guess?"  
"Uh-huh. Suddenly you've landed five shots. How about now?"  
"Ax, this is dumb."  
"Just play with me here." If Salvador wasn't standing close by, looking on with keen interest, she may have been tempted to make a lusty comment back at that one. To change the subject, of course – certainly not to gauge his reaction for future reference.

"Okay... five shots landed? Good. I'd feel good – bad ass Vault Hunter at your service."  
"And now you've landed six – all six targets down perfectly, and only now do you have to reload." Gaige felt her lips pull back in a smile.  
"Effing awesome." The commando nodded, realization seeming to dawn on his face.  
"That explains it. Our mechromancer here has a case of blood lust." He explained. "She causes massive destruction and doesn't stop to reload unless she absolutely has to – she's so high on it all she's shaking too much to hit for shit. No wonder she charges in." Gaige huffed and crossed her arms, ignoring how cold her prosthetic had become in the snow.

"So what, I've got blood lust? That makes me sound like I'm a murder-hungry bitch, Ax." But the commando smiled and leaned over.  
"Picture this – you've just wiped out a camp of bandits. Two dozen down – singularity grenades and Deathtrap stalk the battlefield. You haven't emptied your magazine yet." Gaige felt her cheeks grow hot and her chest go warm, and she wanted to bite her lip and order him to say it again, much slower. A tiny part of her mind whispered she was a psycho – a hormonally-charged larger part said she was a master Vault Hunter. All she could do was grin widely to herself.  
"Sound's like anarchy." She heard herself say it – she just hoped she hadn't put a moan on the end of it. Axton's voice snapped her out of it all the same.  
"Well, it's a better name than blood lust. Either way, Sal's right. You wanna change that revolver." He turned back to the triumphant gunzerker. "Shotgun?" he asked.  
"Si, shotgun!"

* * *

Gaige gave the gearbox a disgusted look as she pushed it inside the steam pump, trying hard to ignore the skag-spit that still clung to the component. She just hoped the fluid didn't act as a conductor. Pushing the housing back up and closed, she snapped her fingers impatiently.  
"Nurse? Capacitor." Axton withdrew the bullymong's prized possession from his pack and planted it in her hand.  
"Capacitor, doctor."  
"Very good – over there is the way up, and don't fall and hurt yourself while you're climbing to the top."

Axton regarded her coolly. She stared back evenly before eventually wilting and huffing.  
"Why should I be the one to climb up there?" she asked with a pout.  
"'Cause all day long I hear you say what an awesome engineer you are, and-"  
"_Please_ – I'm an awesome engineer, sexy woman of science and _now_ a mistress of anarchy. You get the title right, soldier boy." But Axton merely rolled his eyes and lead the way to the nearby ladder.  
"Yes, well, you're the woman for the job, so up you climb." And without waiting he grabbed her narrow hips and lifted her up onto the bottom rung. She hoped he didn't hear her sudden squeak.

"And I might just lend you a shotgun for you to practice with when you get back down. But remember," he nodded towards the top. "Try not to fall and hurt yourself." Gaige glared back down at him.  
"You just wanna peek up my skirt, don't you?" she accused.  
"You got me. Now get moving."

For all her earlier complaining, Gaige soon found herself tinkering with electrical components (albeit a simpler variant to what she was used to) and feeling right at home. For how disgusting the ruined motel was, she took pride in her work, and she was going to make sure that tacky pig was lit up forever. Crossing the correct wires and ensuring the circuit was complete left her smirking. "It's okay – momma's gonna make sure you're good to go." She said as she finished her installations and closed the housings off. She slid back down the ladder and landed once more in the dust of the motel, wasting no time in turning the valve. The pump gave a shuddering movement before working into the earth, and the lights of The Happy Pig flickered before giving a soft glow.

Axton whistled and leaned against a nearby wall, watching the bounty board begin to power up. Salvador meanwhile had been standing in front of the motel sign, and cheered as it become illuminated.  
"You do good work." He remarked, before handing her a Torgue shotgun with a wink. She accepted it with her prosthetic and grinned victoriously.  
"Was there ever any doubt? I build things to last, y'know." The commando hummed and watched as Salvador sang a jovial tune up at the pig.  
"Well, it's not much, but apparently it's all ours, now." They cast a long look at the miserable motel, and Gaige was suddenly wishing that she'd sabotaged the pump – pride wasn't worth it. She looked up at Axton.

"Oh well, if nothing else, you probably got a good look up my skirt, didn'tcha?" she joked. She told herself she still wasn't gauging his reaction. But the commando winked and began to stroll away from the wall.  
"You're right there – cherry red's my favourite color." For the second time that day, she was struck dumb, and could only watch as he casually wandered towards Salvador. What were the odds that he could correctly guess what shade of panties she was wearing, anyway?

* * *

That afternoon, Axton, Salvador and Gaige stood before the lit motel. It was still in utter ruins – the Bloodshots had even turned the check in room into a sadistic monument from animal bones after their slaughter. But now, long after the bandits had stormed The Happy Pig, the vendors were powered and the board was blinking with life. And as far as Salvador was concerned, that made the three of them partners in owning it. Deep down, Gaige didn't think Maya or Zer0 would mind in being left out of this little business venture.

"Pandora is my home," rumbled the gunzerker as he admired the tacky sign. "She is wild and mean, and the borderlands are an unforgiving place." He lifted another bottle of Rakk-ale and sipped, before saluting the pig once more. "But she is _ours_, and we will not let bandits or Jack have her, damn it!" It was the most the gunzerker had said in the time they had known him, and both Axton and Gaige began to appreciate a bit of the pride that he had for his home, even in the form of a ruined, tacky motel. But Salvador simply handed them each a bottle of Rakk-ale and admired the landmark again.

Gaige studied the bottle and looked back down at the stunted man.  
"You're giving me a drink?" Salvador grinned.  
"You are shotgun-shooting, property owning Vault hunter, and I am _not_ pretty blue siren with knickers in a knot." And he laughed heartily before swallowing another mouthful. She turned to Axton, who merely shrugged and brought his own to his lips.  
"Local custom, give it a go. Besides, you might not like it." So, Gaige hesitantly brought the bottle to her mouth and took a swig. Axton was right – Rakk-ale sucked. But it felt good to be part of the moment, all the same.


	6. A forgettable day

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 6 – A forgettable day**

* * *

"_I know this sounds like some sort of... trap but, heh... you'll just have to trust me_."

Zer0 strode down towards the underground garage as Salvador spun the Echo-recorder around on a thick finger. The pair of them walked ahead as Gaige and Axton strolled behind, chatting about shotguns and bomb makers and unpredictable weather patterns. Salvador gave a subtle nod back at the pair and began miming an inane talking motion. Zer0 shrugged his thin shoulders and continued on.

"We should be cautious; the words of a dead bandit, unfulfilled vengeance." Breathed the assassin, and Salvador threw the recorder into the snow nearby and snorted loudly.  
"If bandit was smart, he would not have ran away into little yapping girl's mine!" The gunzerker gave a bellowing laugh as he recalled how the bandit began to flee, trying to run and fire behind him only to collide with one of Tina's giant mines. An Echo-recorder landed smouldering in the snow several feet away, followed by several pieces of person. Tiny Tina herself was on the Echo soon afterwards, yelling at the "silly sucka" who wasted her bomb.

"So I managed to strengthen my arm to the point where I don't even feel the weight of the shotgun now! And all I had to do was replace the primary strut with some poly-kryten I rescued from Sanctuary's foundations, and ..." Axton held his hands up, silencing the mechromancer for a moment. When the girl talked tech, she talked fast.  
"What do you mean foundations? You're not sabotaging anything now, are ya?"  
"Please! I don't do anything that childish... not anymore, anyway." The commando arched his brow and opened his mouth when Zer0 called a warning. Both he and Salvador had dived away into the snow and Axton yelled a curse before pushing Gaige down and throwing his arm across her shoulders.

All at once, she felt the cold ground meet her front, Axton's arm covering her back and a loud explosion ringing her ears. The whole ordeal was disorientating and she lay stretched out in the snow for a few seconds longer, feeling her vest begin to freeze and someone saying something next to her. Salvador was hoisting Axton up and yelling something – the commando was holding his own ear and shouting back before reaching down and pulling her up. The ringing was beginning to fade, just as a hoard of bandits began swarming towards the wreckage of the booby-trapped chest. Zer0 was already back on both legs and picking them off, one by one. Maya was yelling on the Echo from the other side of the tundra, asking what had happened. Axton's turret deployed from nowhere and the area became a blood bath.

* * *

Gaige gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the world around her: the faint snow was managing to get into the joint of her prosthetic, and her arm was beginning to move stiffly because of it. In the distance she could hear another mine explode randomly. Worst of all, every explosion was accompanied by Tiny Tina hopping on the Echo-net and making a comment. Or howling. Or trying to rap. It went on.

When they first met the bomb maker, there was a maddening appeal to the girl that might have been infectious. And none of them could hold her deranged ways against her – any child living on Pandora, much less one alone in a cave near a bandit refinery, would be certifiably nuts. But not long afterwards the girl was on the Echo-net every few minutes, demanding they find something she had lost in the tundra. Or asking "army dude" how many bombs he had seen in his career. Or Zer0 if she could wear his helmet (which she did by saying the word "please" several dozen times in one breath, voice going up and down) until the assassin switched his recorder off. For Gaige, the thirteen-year old took one look at her metal arm and made a noise directly from a hard R-rated film, before doing a frustrated dance because "Mushy Snugglebutt is the jealous type".

Any other day, Tiny Tina might not be so bad. But right then and there, the Vault Hunters just wished she'd stop rapping. When Maya finished aiming the stuffed toy missiles and radioed for them to be set off, Salvador leaned towards Axton and muttered a clear "Thank fuck." Gaige tried not to show the dry chuckle she felt inside. As Tina began chanting a short count down, interrupted halfway with the actual detonation, the nearby train bridge groaned and collapsed as it was struck by both rockets. There was a pregnant pause as the Vault Hunters watched train cars shoot into oblivion and scrape the ground before the entire freight came to a halt.

"Okay – that's enough now." Maya said when everything was still and quiet again.

* * *

Wilhelm was a monster, more than all of the Vault Hunters put together. A thuggish Hyperion engineer, who's entire lower body was supported on a pair of robotic loader legs. From the waist up was all that was left of the man, whoever he once was. He controlled his heavy lifter arms like one would an exo-suit, lifting entire train cars up from the frozen tundra and hurling them at the team. Most of his face was replaced with a grafted lens – more than Gaige's cybernetic arm, or Salvador's steroid abuse or even Maya's siren powers, Wilhelm was a terrifying experiment made real.

"Get to cover! Lay down suppressive fire on those repairers!" Axton pressed himself against one of the sunken carriages, throwing his hand around as he issued instructions. His beloved Dahl turret was deployed on a nearby rock, peppering the battlefield with constant fire. As the commando reloaded his assault rifle, the carriage he was leaning against was lifted upwards. He spared a quick look before throwing himself out of harm's way as the entire car came crashing back down, crumpling and breaking.

Salvador wasn't as lucky, and as the gunzerker roared and blasted the cyborg with a pair of shotguns, Wilhelm whipped half of the broken car around and slapped the stunted man away into the cliff face. Salvador coughed a spray of blood and collapsed as one of the loader arms reared back. Only the timely arrival of Deathtrap spared the fallen Fault Hunter, blocking the swing and attacking with a harsh slash of digistruct claws. Wilhelm was pushed back with repeated blows before finally catching the hovering android. Deathtrap was brought down onto the remains of another train car and shattered into digital static.

"Bring it down, already!" roared Axton, sliding into the snow next to Salvador and attempting to revive him. Behind them, Wilhelm brought a stomping hydraulic leg down onto Zer0, only to move through the assassin. A holographic decoy flickered and winked out of existence as the genuine hunter appeared clinging onto the cyborg's back. A static blade erupted through his chest before Zer0 gracefully somersaulted off. Maya and Gaige burned through over half of their ammunition as they worked to finish the job.

When the snow settled and all was quiet, Axton and Zer0 threw Salvador's arms over their shoulders and began carrying him towards the sparking Fast Travel station. The gunzerker had blood trailing down from his mouth and was mumbling gibberish. Gaige looked over the scavenged power core and jogged after them. They were no closer to reclaiming the Vault Key, had no idea of where to strike next, and one of their own was severely injured. The day was steadily going from bad to worse.

* * *

Zed threw a container of fluid onto a gurney, washing off most of the blood but satisfied that it would be enough. The legs of the table strained under Salvador's bulk but the medic ignored it, instead focusing on filling a hypodermic from a nearby bottle. While he didn't have a medical license, he was still the best there was when it came to treatment.

As the gunzerker's vitals steadily became more stabilized, an explosion outside rocked the entire clinic. Another followed it and a nearby table was knocked over – tools scattering over the filthy floor.  
"What in the hell is going on out there?!" he hollered out, and an armoured Raider dashed inside.  
"Sanctuary's shield is down!" he explained, running in and grabbing the acting doctor's arm. "Dr. Zed, we have to get you and the rest of the civilians underground, now!" Zed tore his arm back and pulled an injection out of Salvador's shoulder.

"Listen to me, son. If we don't get this fella to safety first, you, me and the rest of the rabble around here are skagmeat. So you drop yer' toy gun already and you grab the other end of this table." Zed clamped his hands at the head of the gurney and glared. The Raider began to stutter and protest, and the table was pushed forward into his gut. Finally he slung his rifle across his shoulder and grabbed the other end, following orders as Zed pushed Salvador outside and towards the nearest armoured bunker.

Across town, Maya hopped down from the ledge of their Headquarters. Sanctuary's long-dormant engine was stretched upwards and Lilith was leaning against it, panting heavily.  
"Gimme that eridium already, killer!" Maya's armful of eridium passed from one siren to the other – one set of blue tattoo's dimming as the other's glowed a vibrant, alien pulse. And Maya knew nothing but light and the sensation that she was everywhere and nowhere at once.

* * *

Sanctuary was gone. Sanctuary, Salvador, Roland, everybody had vanished in a giant phase walking shift as Lilith picked up the entire city and drew it inside her own dimension. The four remaining Vault Hunters sat panting in the snow of Three Horns, trying to get their bearings. The Angel was pleading over their Echo's to head towards an underground tunnel called simply "The Fridge."  
Zer0 was the first to recover, brushing flakes of dust and frost from his suit and grabbing Maya by the arm. The siren seemed to snap out of a trance and looked around, up at the assassin, and back across to where Sanctuary had lifted free of its berth. She reached over and shook Axton, who nodded and stood up without a word. Gaige stayed sitting in the snow, and Axton had to lift her up before her legs did the rest.

With nothing else for them to do, the team spawned a technical and kept moving.

* * *

None of them could tell if the Fridge was a suitable name or not. It was essentially yet another of Dahl's half-completed mining operations inside a frozen mountain within Three Horn's borderlands. It was deep, with echoing animal shrieks bouncing off the walls from the cave structures. The bandits that had made it their home was even more rampant than others that the Vault Hunters had encountered. The rusty bulkhead doors completed the scene.

"Axton, was Pandora a crap shack _before_ Dahl came to strip-mine the planet, or after?" Maya's lips pulled back into a deep frown as she saw the embossed logo on another ruined gangway. The commando merely shrugged in response.  
"Dunno, hon. Dahl's got two major subdivisions – mining and military. I never touched a pick axe in my life."  
"And you got kicked out of the other one for not knowing enough about it, either." The siren responded. Axton paused for a moment before finally agreeing.  
"Pretty much."

"Dahl – if we can't fuck it, we'll kill it." Gaige supplied – her first words since entering the frozen cavern. Axton merely chuckled and threw her a smirk.  
"Someone knows the score – chalk another up for our engineer." But Gaige was too focused on pushing her legs forward and ignoring the numb ache in her shoulder. As much as she loved her Deathtrap, it wasn't the first time she wondered if hacking off her entire arm was such a clever thing to do.

* * *

Afternoon turned Pandora's sky to a peaceful shade of peach, not that the team paid a lot of attention to it. They were perched above a Hyperion facility and observing an entire staff of loaders at work beneath them. In the distance, the newly-reappeared Sanctuary floated peacefully on the horizon.  
"_You'll need a lunar beacon to summon an un-calibrated Fast Travel network._" The Guardian Angel insisted that she was still helping them. For the better part, they simply didn't challenge her. They were without a plan, unable to link back up with the Crimson Raiders, and quite simply too tired to care. It was surprisingly Maya who had lost her temper first – gathering as many stalkers with her phase lock before crushing them with a yell. As it turned out, their shrieks and cry's carried just as well in the highlands as it did in the depths of the Fridge. Maya continued to yell after turning them to pulp, before cursing the day altogether.

To see Sanctuary wink back into existence was a pleasant surprise, but the Vault Hunters were hungry, worn out and frustrated too much to care about it. So the commando, the siren, the assassin and the mechromancer had lapsed back into familiar thoughts and patterns. As loaders shuffled around the facility, occasionally repelling a thresher attack, Maya ran a hand through her cropped hair and huffed.  
"So, what's our plan?"  
"Kick ass, steal beacon, get home, have dessert." Axton replied.  
"Sometimes the best plans, are not complicated ones, but straightforward instead." Zer0 replied mystically. Gaige mere adjusted her goggles and flexed her thawing prosthetic, nodding. The old battery from Axton's turret hummed in her bicep and Deathtrap groaned in existence before swooping down at an engineer.

Together, the Vault Hunters took to yet another battlefield that day.

* * *

"_There – the beacon will have an uninterrupted signal to the lunar base from beside the grinder!_" An icon winked on Zer0's screen and he placed the liberated beacon. A graceful acrobatic leap placed him on top of a nearby container, and with sniper rifle out he surveyed the town of Overlook.  
"Clear." He breathed. Axton shook his head and kicked over a nearby mailbox, deploying his shining turret. The new laser sight began sweeping back and forth along the rear of the town.  
"They'll know just where to find us while that thing's blinking. Find some cover!"

Nightfall had descended on Pandora and a chill breeze was blowing through the cliff-top settlement. For a tense moment, they were alone with the beacon and the whistling wind. Until the whistle grew and exploded as a loader crashed in front of them, and the Vault Hunters were once again playing defence. Maya snagged another newly arrived robot in her phase lock and flung it out into the valley below. Sick with the skulls-shivers or not, Zer0 wondered idly why none of Overlooks residents reacted to the growing chaos in the middle of town.

Gaige was a frenetic madman. Deathtrap's circuits were still recharging, but she had steadily caused more and more destruction since the refinery that she could hardly shoot straight. The word "_anarchy_" kept echoing in her mind like a mantra. She felt like she had gorged on caffeine and sugar and had solved the mystery of the atom. As a heavy loader crashed to earth behind her, the mechromancer whirled and fired her shotgun at point blank range. The unit exploded and she crowed with excitement. "Anarchy!"

"_It's on its way! Just hold on a little longer!_" pleaded Angel, before the Echo-net exploded with static and a furious Jack barked orders.  
"Send in everything you have – I want those bastards dead _now_!" Gone was all of his swagger and confidence. They were dealing with a desperate man, and the loaders gave way to the heavy constructor units. Axton cursed furiously as his turret was cut down and returned to its storage deck unit. The commando lifted his assault rifle up and squeezed the trigger. The gun jumped in his grip until his hands felt numb, and he kept on firing. Behind him, Zer0's thin back pressed to his, and Axton heard the sharp noise of a sniper rifle bolt ring beside him.

"We're getting boxed in here!" It was Maya, who had been pushed against their flank. The siren looked pale and her tattoos were almost burning from stretching her powers. Gaige appeared on the other side – eyes wide, teeth gritted and shotgun thumping in her hands. All avenues out of town were blocked.

"Jack can kiss my ass." The team spared Zer0 a surprised look, but the assassin continued to reload his sniper rifle, unconcerned. With one comment, the day officially seemed like a write off. The Vault Hunters stood with their backs to each other, weapons raised at the incoming tide of Hyperion units. A single war loader broke ahead of the wave, planting its feet in front of Maya and running subroutines. And then a Fast Travel network slammed into it from on high – and the siren distantly thought that someone was indeed watching over them.

"Ride's here – time to go home!" The firing commenced once more as she flicked through the selections. She disappeared in a shimmer of digital static, and Zer0 pulled at Axton's shoulder before following. Gaige's anarchy high was still coursing through her and she kept shooting, until finally Axton wrapped an arm around her waist and physically dragged her through the station.

The constructors and loaders left in Overlook soon burst apart as Jack roared in frustration, detonating them from his office.

* * *

Salvador was resting propped up in one of Moxxi's booths, arm in a sling and chewing on another interesting meal while slurping from a glass.  
"So, then what happened?" he asked around a mouthful, and Maya shook her head and continued telling the day's events. Her hair was matted and beside her, Zer0's suit was sporting a bit of wear and tear, but they were beginning to relax back into familiar surroundings. At the bar, Axton and Gaige were leaning with their elbows on the bench. Only the commando's boots rested on the ground. Moxxi gave the two tired, filthy Vault Hunters a disarming smile and asked what they wanted.

"Anything spicy and a beer to wash it down with," grunted the commando.  
"Spicier and stronger," mimicked the mechromancer, and was surprised to see Moxxi chuckle but say she'll get right on it. She deflated again a moment later when her "stronger" drink was the same fizzy fluid she was usually served. As Moxxi left the bar, the pair lifted their glasses at the same time and took a long, slow drink. Both glasses were sat back down on the bench in unison.

"You okay?" Axton asked quietly, and Gaige murmured an affirmative.  
"Today was just... really..."  
"You can say it – it sucked with teeth." Explosions, ambushes, Salvador's injuries, Sanctuary tearing free from the ground, disappearing and re-appearing, Angel's betrayal and the depth of Jack's manipulations. It had been a long day, pure and simple. Distantly, she thought she was able to make a snide comment back at the phrase "sucked with teeth" but she was too tired to bother. Instead, she propped her chin up with her hand and nodded.

"Hey, c'mere." Axton leaned over and put his arm across Gaige's shoulder, and she hesitated a moment before wrapping hers around his chest in an awkward hug.  
"We're in a war here, aren't we?" she asked. He hummed and nodded – Vault Hunting, fame and riches didn't seem as much fun as it had when she had woken up that morning.  
"Yeah, we are. Tip of the spear and all." Axton said finally, before stopping and pushing her back onto her stool. "But today, Jack threw everything he had at us." Gaige lifted her head and frowned but listened. "He sent his best bad guy after us and we took him down. Hell," his mouth quirked into a wry grin. "If he was less machine and more man, Sal' would've wanted us to bring him back in a doggie bag." Gaige couldn't hold her laugh at that one.

"Think about it – he tried to destroy Sanctuary and we _moved_ it." Axton continued, beginning to extend his fingers with each triumph. "We raided a Hyperion facility and robbed them blind. And you heard him in Overlook – he threw everything he had at us." Axton spread his hands around Moxxi's place. "And here we are, home safe and sound." The mechromancer looked around and chuckled – she never thought she'd be so happy to see the Moxxi's neon pink signs. She looked back up and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right... today still sucked hard though." Axton merely grinned, exhaustion showing on his face all the same.  
"Yeah, it did. But hey – it'll make a damn good story when all's said and done." Gaige nodded and went back to sipping her soda. She felt like she could sleep for days on end. And then she wanted to do some serious upgrading to her Deathtrap – she still remembered how Wilhelm had defeated her robot easily, and that had to change. If Handsome Jack wanted a war, he was going to have one.


	7. Haven't you noticed?

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 7 – Haven't you noticed?**

* * *

Gaige stood atop a high gangplank, hands gripping the railing as she looked down upon her laboratory below. Beakers of noxious fluids bubbled away and equipment hummed with life. There were people shuffling back and forth around the middle, where a large white coat covered a bulky table. The mechromancer looked up towards the opened hatch in the ceiling, where the stormy clouds of Pandora swirled angrily.

"Lookout – report!" she snapped upwards, and Mordecai's head appeared over the edge.  
"The storm's approaching from out near Treacher's Landing. It'll be here in minutes!" The sniper then took a mouthful from a bottle of rakk-ale and disappeared again. Gaige cursed and leaned over the balcony. Down below, Lilith and Maya were posing either side of the bulky drop cloth, propping up a pair of antenna's as conductors.

"You, Igor!" she aimed one of her claws down at Scooter, who hobbled around with a hunched back in rags. Her pointed cybernetic hand became a malevolent fist. "Raise the platform! Raise it!" The hunchback mechanic nodded and snickered, limping over to a chain and pulling on it.  
"Raisin' tha platform, Doctar'!" he hollered. "Catch-a-bolt-a-light-ning!" he sang, as the covered table began to rise through the room, past Gaige, and continuing up through the hole in the roof. The white cloth fluttered to the ground soon after, where it landed on a roaming Claptrap. The robot swivelled around under the sheet before howling that it had gone blind and rolled frantically into a wall. The mechromancer ignored it, focusing on the thunder above them.

"Let this school science fair project come first this time!" she roared, grabbing a nearby lever and pulling it down dramatically. A shock of lightning struck above, lancing down to the ground and jumping between the sirens. They giggled as if they were being tickled. With another barking order, Scooter began to lower the table slowly from the hatch. A wisp of smoke was curling upwards, and Mordecai's face re-appeared over the hole to watch on. Finally, the hulking mass on the table lay stretched out before the mechromancer, twitching its deadly claws. She threw her fists up and grinned, maniacally.

"It's alive!" she shouted, leaning over the railing and taking in the hybrid. A hulking robot, like her original Deathtrap unit, began powering up. Its boxy head was complimented with a targeting laser, and its shoulders bore chain guns and missile pods. The Dahl logo was embossed on the military green android. Gaige grinned and yelled behind her.

"Honey! Come and see our new child!" She swung back around with glee as Dahltrap began to hover above the berth. "Aw," she cooed. "He has your eyes!" And the robot's glowing optic suddenly filled her vision.

Gaige sat up in a hurry, legs tangled in her bed sheet and feeling hot and clammy. She looked around to see the familiar messy bunks and wall safe of their headquarters in Sanctuary. The room was deserted. She swung her bare legs out and over the edge of her bed, rubbing sleep from her eye with her hand.  
"I slept too long." She muttered to herself, groggily. "And what was _that_ all about... eff-em-el."

Downstairs, Lilith, Maya and Tannis were assembled around one of the insane doctor's benches. "If raw eridium compliments your siren powers at a base molecular level, it would be worth investigating if either of you would be immune to slag poisoning." Tannis was busy applying a small secretion of slag underneath her microscope, before stopping mid-way and grabbing a nearby Echo-recorder. "Mental note – no longer require new humidifier. Sanctuary's lofty perch acts as its own natural air conditioner. New request – require fire place." She dropped the recorder atop a chair, ordering both inanimate objects not to start fighting over her. Lilith merely rolled her eyes.

"Patty, where are you going with this? Surely there's something better you could be doing." Tannis smiled and waved her hand dismissively.  
"Yes, well, I simply _had_ to find a use for all of that extra blood that's been building up, thanks in part to my inferior colleague without a medical licence around the corner. We add slag to blood and make science!" Maya screwed her face up at the mere thought, suddenly thinking that she should have taken up Marcus' offer to hunt down his missing chest of treasure.  
"So this is how you're gonna cure slag poisoning?" she asked, eyeing the fluid glowing under the microscope. Tannis gave her a poker face.  
"Cure?" she asked, and Maya felt a chill go up her spine. Thankfully, it was also when Gaige interrupted the moment by hopping down the last few stairs and strolling past, toast between her teeth as she waved at them.

"Go-hing ough, back 'ater guysh." She managed to communicate, before mumbling something entirely incoherent at Lilith. And then she was gone. Maya could feel a headache coming on stronger.  
"What the hell was all that jibberish?" she asked the other siren, who smirked and waved it off.  
"Little killer's doing some work for me in the tundra today. I asked if she'd like to wipe out a bunch of guys who say shit like 'tarnation' and she jumped at the chance." Maya frowned, crossing her arms and leaning heavily against the bench. She wasn't sure young Gaige and her hyperactive, anarchy-driven god complex should be out and about on her own. She must have been easy to read, as Lilith chuckled and sat back down across from her.

"Relax – she'll be fine. 'Bout time she got a few solo wins under her belt, anyway." Tannis glanced up from her microscope with a look of mild surprise, as if the social discussion had only just begun to make sense to her.  
"Oh, the mechromancer is going out alone? Surprising." She went back to fiddling with the knobs of her scope, studying as the slag began to cling to and weaken the blood sample she had applied. "It's quite rare to see her without the commando."

For a long moment, nobody said anything. It was true, certainly, but not something anyone had especially paid much attention to. Finally, slowly, Maya opened her mouth. "What?"  
Tannis sighed and whirled around at her recorder, glaring pointedly towards it.  
"Yes, I _know_ she's slow, but there's no need to say it in front of her!" she snapped, before looking apologetic at the newer siren. "Sorry – he has no tact, what-so-ever. But he does have a point. You haven't noticed?"

Lilith, who was more used to Tannis' special brand of insanity, replied in a dull voice that they were both slow and that she would have to spell it out for them. She pointedly ignored both Maya's protesting glare and Tannis puffing out her chest.  
"Well, it's obvious!" she said, spreading her hands in the air. "You don't need to be a galaxy-class scientist to work it out. Older man, rugged looks, leadership qualities, and her, a hormonal teenager with a _staggeringly_ good sense of engineering. She obviously finds him physically attractive." Maya felt herself choke on nothing, but Lilith merely squinted and leaned over.  
"What's her being all buildy with robots got to do with anything?" But Tannis merely flicked the slide out from under her scope and flung it in a nearby bin, where it broke on several hundreds of other glass plates.

"Well, you could take her robots interest and his own turret building as a common ground that they share," she began, as Maya gulped down a glass of water to stop her coughs. "But speaking as a woman of similar intellect, I find her type of male-figure to be rather interesting myself, to say the least." She gave a predatory grin before immediately spinning back around and shushing the chair and Echo device. "Oh stop it, both of you! It's not my fault you can't listen to some girl talk without either of you growing jealous!"

* * *

Gaige climbed up the overturned box car and kicked some snow out of her sneaker, grimacing at how wet her stocking was again. '_Yuck yuck yuck_.' She thought, before pulling the frozen shoe off altogether and huffing out a frosty breath. The destroyed train line and Pandora's frozen mountain range stretched out before her as she took in the view from the end of the line. None of the Vault Hunters had paid much attention at the time, but their tussle with Wilhelm had turned the precipice to shambles.

Which, really, was why she was there. It had been three days since "the day that sucked, and not in the fun way" as she had called it. Sure, they hadn't been pushed to moments of religious awakenings or outpours of regrets, (they were mass murdering Vault Hunters, after all) but it had certainly been a wake up call. Roland had later regaled the team with stories of repairing Claptraps and hunting down giant Skags, all for the sake of getting stronger. "You guy's took Wilhelm apart – that alone is worth a trophy, but you could never have too much experience." He had said.

There were merits to his advice – in the time that had followed since heading out from Liars Berg, they had all grown considerably. All except Deathtrap. For all of his advanced programming and friend/foe runtimes, the robot was incapable of learning on an A.I. level. He had also been without a good, solid upgrade since Gaige had deemed all of Scooter's equipment as "crap, junk and shit." So, she had decided to approach the problem the same way the team had approached their weaponry – loot what you can, when you can. Pulling her shoe back on, the mechromancer wiped some snow off the boxcar and rapped her metal knuckles against it. Wilhelm had scuffed the surface, but overall the steel had held strong. She grinned and pulled out her laser cutter.

"Deathtrap wants an upgrade? Deathtrap gets an upgrade!"

* * *

"So let me see if I can get this straight..." Maya rubbed back and forth above her eye, trying to ease the tension she was feeling. Tannis had managed to fill one of the un-explained washing machines with loose bullets and a beaker of slag, setting the entire mess on a spin cycle in what she only referred to as 'E-tech experiment number thirty seven.' The banging and violet glow was only contributing to Maya's headache.

"You're saying Gaige is probably attracted to Axton, and... that's it?" Tannis looked up and nodded.  
"Yes, that's the layman's terms. She probably wishes to engage in physical contact with him in a graphic, intimate nature. That's the technical phrase."  
"She's hot for the commando." Lilith supplied with humour, and Maya only groaned as Tannis replied that sirens weren't well-read.  
"Am I the only one seeing the big deal about this?" Maya asked, growing even more frustrated as both women answered "yes" at the same time.

"I don't see why you're so worked up about it. Unless..." Tannis grabbed an Echo-recorder off a nearby shelf and spoke into the microphone. "Possible studies on siren relations. Subject 'Blue' is growing apprehensive over possible relations between subject 'Green' and subject 'Engineer.' Given subject 'Firehawk' has a history with a military figure, could _all_ sirens display some wanton physical lust towards soldiers?" Tannis paused and turned, taking in Maya's disbelieving look. She nodded to herself and continued. "Almost certainly. Perhaps proof that sirens, eridium, soldiers and the Vault are connected on a deeper level... Personal note – wish to test the effects of slag and bandit midgets in one of the washing machines."

The Echo-recorder was deposited back onto the shelf, and Maya was sorely tempted to phase and destroy the machine for allowing such recorded tripe to exist. Instead, she pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. Her head was starting to thump harder.  
"That ain't it, Patty." Lilith mentioned, leaning nearby and looking for all the world like an amused bystander. "Our little newbie here grew up in one of those over-protective cults off world. Maybe she's just a frustrated virgin?" Lilith smirked victoriously as Maya turned a furious look towards her.

"I hadn't considered that... oh, but of course! Maya probably hasn't been properly educated on physical relations!" Tannis clasped her hands happily and turned to the moody siren. "If you want to do some research, I _highly _recommend you download 'Sixty Shades of Slate' off the Echo-net."  
"Eh, too fictional, Patty." Lilith gave Maya an approving look and grinned. "Really, there's one person you need to talk to."

* * *

Moxxi flicked the rim of her top hat, feeling it slip back into place with practiced ease. She couldn't help it – she was feeling a little cocky. As far as she was aware, sleeping with a siren would have to be on everyone's list of sexual fantasies. And yet, Maya was once again perched on her usual bar stool, chin resting on her palm and fingers around a bottle as she lavished attention on the barkeep. Because, as the new siren had said, "when you need to ask about sex, Mad Moxxi was the authority on Pandora."

"Well, I must say it's nice to know my reputation precedes me," she had replied, crossing her arms under her ample chest. "So, what's a nice girl like you need to know, sugar? Fair warning – I don't teach my advanced moves to novices." Maya felt her drink slip down the wrong way and she coughed.  
"It's not for me!" she managed to get out, and Moxxi frowned in confusion.  
"Sorry, I heard you grew up in a cult or church or something – figured a sexy little siren like yourself would be dying to know all she could by now." Maya felt her face flush, unable to help the feeling of being looked down upon for her lack of experience.  
"Look, I just... need to talk to a sane person about some people I know."

This was a mistake – Moxxi grinned playfully and tried naming every combination she could think of about Maya's mystery couple, including "Tannis and Zed" and "Bloodwing and Claptrap." The siren quickly grew frustrated and glared, but all the hostess did was offer a disarming smile and shrug.  
"It's... Gaige and Axton." Maya whispered, and waited.  
"... who are they again?" The siren bit back a groan, trying in vain to describe the pair.

"Ohh, soldier and peach-head, you mean?"  
"Yes! And I just... what's a peach?" Moxxi looked like the cat who got the cream, leaning forward against her bar and talking excitedly.  
"They're fruit, sugar – they look like a blushing pink with a little bit of fur, and when you bite into them they just _burst_ sweet nectar down your chin..." Maya squinted at the description, about to reply before a strangled noise beside her surprised her. Another of Sanctuary's refugees stood stock still, before pushing his entire wallet into the tip jar and slowly walking away.

"You're devious." Maya muttered, as Moxxi plucked the wallet from the jar and fanned herself with it.  
"I can't help myself – and I get so worked up when I thought about having a taste of a fresh peach, sugar..." she replied, sticking her tongue out and pocketing some money. The wallet fell unseen onto a dusty shelf, where several other forgotten purses had been laid to rest.  
"Anyway, those two kids are getting romantic you say? Well, kudos to you – wasn't about to guess them. Though, they do look cute when they're at the bar together." Maya could feel her brain stroke off for a moment.

"That's it? She's only eighteen!"  
"So?"  
"He's twenty-six!"  
"And?"  
"And... she's only eighteen!"  
"How old were you when you began getting hot and bothered about someone else?" Maya felt her mouth open and close a few times, trying in vain to think of anything to respond with. To be honest, her strict upbringing had left her little time to think about romance and sex. But it hadn't stopped her thinking a few members of the abbey would have been fun to bunk with, well before her eighteenth birthday. She groaned and held her forehead.  
"Shuddup." She bit out. It suddenly seemed like the theory of an insane scientist with asperger syndrome wasn't something she should have paid much attention to.

"Tell me, sugar – do you know what unrequited means?" The siren screwed her face up in confusion, but Moxxi merely shook her head and continued anyway. "You've met Mordecai by now, right? Well, you know he was one of Roland's group of Vault Hunters a few years ago, hmm?" Moxxi began polishing her bar, lowering her voice and looking about discreetly at the nearest patrons playing darts out of earshot.

"Well, I heard through the echo-net that he and Lilith actually grew up together as kids. And they arrived together on Pandora at the same time – for different reasons, but still." Mad Moxxi turned her cloth to her tip jar, wiping some grease from the side and grabbing a pile of notes from within, which quickly disappeared between her breasts. "So, they wind up as Vault Hunters, change Pandora, and all's right with the world. Then, out of nowhere, Roland and Lilith became an item. And all of a sudden, Mordecai becomes a, shall we say, hobby drinker. He's also showing up a lot at my Underdome by now – rarely with his team mates, usually alone."

Moxxi leaned across her bar and mimicked Maya's pose – head resting on her hand and focusing on nothing in particular. "Sweet kid," she continued. "Oh, the things he'd say and do just for my attention. And hey, I guess he grew on me after awhile, 'cause I agreed to give it a shot." Moxxi sniffed and snapped out of her trance, looking away. "But I'm only so good with short term arrangements, and he's carrying this load all the time. Let's just say it didn't work out. And today, Mordecai is a full blown, loner alcoholic who spends all his time staring down a sniper scope and ruffling his pet bird's feathers."

Maya stared ahead for a long moment – she was feeling like she had just been used to have an emotional load dumped on her after offering an ear for advice. And with her headache not getting any better, she emptied her bottle of beer before asking what the hell any of it had to do with anything. Moxxi only arched a brow and smirked.

"It's Pandora, sugar – sooner or later, if we can't get what we really crave, we all turn to a vice to help us sleep. Vault Hunters included." Maya groaned and pushed herself away, only to stopped by a hand pinning her arm to the bar. Moxxi was leaning closer with a serious look on her face.

"Oh – do me a favour? Don't go telling anyone my little theory about Mordecai and little Lilith, okay sugar?"


	8. Male bonding

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 8 – Male bonding**

* * *

Salvador continued to stare at the open chest, slack-jawed and nostrils flaring.  
"One of the greatest treasures in all of the borderlands..." he breathed, eyes raking over the loot as Zer0 reached forward and lifted one of the worn photographs.

"A treasure like this, such quality and value, would be worth a lot." The assassin tilted his helmet as the pin-up of Mad Moxxi was bathed in the glowing light of corrosive goo and the giant blue crystalisk's corpse. From Salvador's other side, Axton arched his brow and blew a low whistle.  
"Hilly landscape, but I hear quite a few have visited the region already, y'know?" he chuckled, lifting another poster from the chest and turning it sideways. Salvador's only reaction was to clap his hands and bow his head in prayer – the most religious display he had shown either of his fellow Vault Hunters.

"We must return to Senorita Moxxi!" he rumbled into his chest. He lifted his eyes long enough to squint with determination. "Marcus will not pay what they are worth."

* * *

Gaige straddled the inert Deathtrap, humming inanely to herself while busily working with a ratchet on the robot's arm. Both of the droid's limbs were now sporting bulky, yellow armor, stripped from the train carriage. It wasn't a pretty transition – the new casings were dented and scuffed in places from where her claw had struck in an effort to shape the material. The padlock and heart decal had begun to fade too, much to her annoyance. All future plans of expanding into a galaxy-wide franchise with the padlock as her logo would have to be put on hold until she fixed that one. After the current upgrades were finished, of course.

Gaige tightened the bolt and leaned back. Over all, DT had come a long way from being a vanilla, anti-bullying school science fair project into the patchwork weapon it was now. Not that digistruct claws capable of exploding a person wasn't impressive. But at least with the newly-reinforced arms she should get a bit more variety out of Deathtrap's hulking strikes. And if her maths were right, a hard, heavy clap should be enough to burst any brain close enough to hear it.

Assuming her maths was right. The idea for massive metal thunder-claps came from her disturbing dream from before. With lightning strikes going hand-in-hand with science and an implied romance with an older commando, and that annoying mechanic had been forced into slavery. And then the lightning and science would come together beautifully to make a robot/turret hybrid and the afore-mentioned commando and herself would be a kick-ass daddy and mommy.

Two plus two equals twenty-two.

"Maybe we should test the maths on a control zone..." she admitted to herself, storing the upgraded Deathtrap model within her arm's digistruct device.

* * *

"Okay, but what if he was a _she_?"  
"Explain!" The three male Vault Hunters continued their trek back through the Caustic Caverns, discussing everything from arts, philosophy and news.  
"I mean, if Handsome Jack was I dunno... Pretty Jacqueline. Would that change anything?" Axton kicked a pebble into the nearby stream of acid, watching it bubble and melt as the others considered the question.  
"No – the same treatment." Both commando and gunzerker regarded the assassin with surprise. Not five minutes before, he had explained how he would deal with the very male Handsome Jack.  
"That's cold, amigo. Mi abuela always taught me to respect women!" The gunzerker stopped and gazed upwards, throwing a hand across his chest. "Salvador, she said, be respectful to kind elders, and be gentleman to friendly senoritas." Salvador's lips pulled back, revealing all of his teeth in a proud grin.

"That's funny. My Granny used to say little things like that – I guess you get to that age and spreadin' words of wisdom gets to be your job." Zer0's helmet cocked to the side – the only indication that he was listening to the entire exchange. The assassin had been busily looking over the collected pin-up's of Moxxi since Axton posed the question of a female Jack.

"And what did commando abuela say to little Axton, eh?" Salvador had swiped one of the posters from Zer0's hand and stepped backwards, circling around and placing Axton between them. If Zer0 was annoyed from the light theft, it was impossible to tell. But Axton merely sighed and clapped a hand on either man's shoulder before his eyes took on a far-away look. "The neck and the groin." He nodded to himself. "That's what she said. It doesn't matter how big the other prick is – they've always got a neck and a groin." The commando shook his head and sighed, walking away from the pair. Zer0 breathed a sombre "wise words" before flicking Salvador in the side of his muscled neck. The gunzerker jumped at the sudden poke, quickly losing the pin-ups to the assassin once again.

* * *

Zeke turned over his latest hunk of raw eridium, flicking his prospector light on and examining it closer. From inside the ore he saw his wide, toothless smile twinkle back up at him. After all, each unearthed chunk brought him that much closer to his dream – moving south to Aegrus and opening a bar, catering to the local savages and having booze-filled adventures. His day dreams were interrupted when the sound of a heavy thunderclap broke through the mines, followed by a piercing yell outside. Zeke shoved the ore deep into his pocket and turned to where the light outside was spilling into the mine. A flaming, screaming figure flew across the entrance. An explosion followed closely, filling the air with dust motes as the mine shook.

Zeke staggered out into the quarry as a nearby crusher groaned and began to lean. The structure gave a final, fatal cry as it pitched over and collapsed on a nearby container of mined eridium. Dreams of drunken savages and hunting parties evaporated, and Zeke grabbed the closest worker by the neck.

"What in the name o' Crawmerax is goin' on out 'ere?!" The worker bubbled at the mouth, looking back and forth in confusion. Blood began dribbling from his ears before he clutched his head and howled. Zeke let go and took a step back as the bandit began thrashing against the dust. Limbs flew every which way in a twisted performance, until the pitiful miner rolled over and fell still. For a brief, fearful moment, there was nothing. The chief prospector nudged the fallen bandit with his boot, waited, and nudged again. The scrawny body rolled over and there was a brief flash, before a singularity grenade detonated from where it was stuck in the middle of the dead man's back. A splash of hot blood covered Zeke's front, leaving a soggy ground where once there was a body.

With wet hands, he looked out over the mining operation and hollered for any reason, any sense, for what had happened to his slag mill. And was met with the sight of an insane girl standing on top of a shipping container, cackling with murderous glee as she threw singularity grenades at anything that moved.

Gaige watched as yet another nomad dropped his weapon and began clawing at the ground, legs kicking in the air in an attempt to get away from the vacuum of the explosive. She took a quick draw with her sidearm and fired – the shot went wild and missed the struggling bandit, only to land in a pile of nearby ore. An explosive burst of slag took out both the nomad and part of the surrounding quarry, and Gaige felt her anarchy excitement grow higher.

"Behold, the mechromancer!" she crowed, spreading her mismatched arms wide.  
"Know my science and ass-kickery, and beg for yer mofo lives!" From above her, prospector Zeke slammed a blood-caked fist into his palm and yelled  
"Who in tarnation are _you_?!"

Gaige merely gazed back, her maniacal grin showing her back teeth. With one eye closed, she reached up and pinched two of her steel fingers together.  
"Squish," she giggled to herself. Deathtrap swooped up from behind Zeke, spreading it's new arms wide before bringing them together against the nomad. The thunderclap echoed in the ruined mine, followed by an excited voice.

"That's some good maths."

* * *

"C'mon, Sal. Just a bit further." Axton had buried his tomahawk into the edge of the cliff, holding the handle in a death grip. Behind him, Zer0 had dropped to one knee while peppering the approaching varkid with sniper fire. And below them, Salvador was clinging to the eroded wall of the cliff he had lost his balance on. Whenever the gunzerker had managed to get a grip, the rock would pry itself loose and drop down into the caustic river below.

"Just remain calm and, well, c'mon! Reach a bit more!" Axton was leaning as far over the edge as he dared, reaching out with his spare hand towards the clinging Vault Hunter.  
"Is easy for you to say!" Salvador roared back. His right foot kept slipping on the rocks, refusing to find purchase. He was only thankful that Zer0 had been holding onto their precious treasure, or the pin-ups would have evaporated before touching the acidic flow below him.

"Just take a deep breath and grab my hand, 'kay?" Axton cringed as he spoke, hearing Zer0's rifle shred a varkid that was too close for comfort.  
"A good reach and we'll be heading back to Sanctuary, and Damnit Zer0, that was right in my ear!" Axton looked behind his shoulder as varkid guts splattered over his back. Zer0's sword flashed an inch from his eyes. A severed insect head was held, skewered, as the body fell against the commando's legs.  
"My apologies. You were too preoccupied. But I saved your life."

Both men jerked back to the cliff after hearing a sudden yelp, and Salvador had tensed up against the cliff.  
"It's slipping. It's slipping!" he called, and Zer0 joined Axton in leaning over the cliff. "No! Not that, it's-" But before Salvador could say it, he wobbled and clung to the rocky wall. There was a clatter below him, and all three watched his precious shotgun bounce down the cliff face before landing in the corrosive river below. The gunzerker screwed his face up and howled.

"You think the girls are having a hard time too?" Axton asked, all the while trying to heave the heartbroken gunzerker back up onto solid ground. Zer0 could only shrug.

* * *

Maya slid down into her bunk bed, finally resorting to alcohol for curing her headache and a bootlegged copy of _Sixty Shades of Slate_ on her Echo device to distract her from everything else.

"This is the most far-fetched piece of crap I've ever read," she slurred, resting her half empty bottle on her knee. From nearby, Lilith sat on the ruined couch, talking Gaige into burying explosives into an armored train car.  
"Stop reading it then," she mumbled.  
"Hell no."  
"Keep both hands where I can see 'em, killer."  
"Hey – you see anything more exciting going on?"

* * *

Gaige planted her feet on top of the ruined train as money rained down around her. Her anarchy had long since pushed her excited mood into an uncontrollable God-complex.  
"Behold, your motha-fuckin' queen, Pandora!" she roared, hurling a grenade against a nearby loader. The last of the miner's pay floated down around her and she cackled madly.  
"I own this land!" she yelled as Deathtrap crushed another loader with its clap. "And all spoilt rich bitches can suck it!" Piles of money littered the station, and the giddy mechromancer began to gather the notes up.

* * *

"Mm, you boys are my heroes..." Moxxi winked playfully, before biting her lip and raking her eyes over Zer0, Axton and Salvador. Dirty, burnt and stained with varkid blood, the three ignored Marcus to hand her well-examined pin-ups back to her.  
"Even if you're diamonds in the rough. Here – a token of my appreciation." She lifted a shotgun up onto the bench, complete with her name and full-figured image printed across the weapon. "Now, you boy's can decide how to share my little ol'-" Salvador picked up the shotgun and mumbled a firm "mine" before moving towards a booth. His tone left little room for argument.

As the three men slipped into a dour mood, nursing drinks and looking over their "prize," Zer0 began to chuckle. A quiet, breathy shaking of his shoulders, but enough to make his companions sit up and stare.  
"I was just thinking." The assassin tilted his helmet to regard the pink shotgun on the table. "All that we did for this gun. We still beat the girls." The quiet shoulder shaking resumed as the commando and gunzerker frowned.

"So... even after all the crap we went through down there, it's okay. Because we still got the most outta today?" Zer0 nodded at Axton, who frowned further. "Doesn't say much. Except that our girls had a boring day..."  
"Si – bet they talked about dolls and boys and make up." Salvador began to join in with Zer0's soft laughter – the closest they had seen to his usual mood since his episode on the cliff face. For a brief moment, the three men found something akin to peace with what they had accomplished that day.

And then Gaige strutted in, throwing money down at the bar.

"Moxxi! Drinks for my men and water for their horses!" she declared, before sliding into the seat next to Zer0. With an attitude still pumped with anarchy and her wallet swollen, the mechromancer didn't hesitate to tell her teammates about her day. From doing what she called hardcore science to wiping out a slag mine, and finally a massive train robbery. All three men grew steadily more dumbstruck as the tale continued.

"Which means," she said when she finally finished. "That mama's calling the shots tonight!" She pulled a thick wad of cash from her pocket and thumbed some notes apart, dropping them in front of Zer0.

"You. Be less mysterious," she ordered, before throwing a pile at Salvador. "Eat some vegetables." Finally her eyes landed on Axton and she smirked playfully. "Toy boy – go give Deathtrap a topless wash for me." She hopped up from the booth and leaned over to add "I'll be along to record it soon." She sauntered out of Moxxi's bar, leaving her fellow Vault Hunters stunned with the other patrons. Zer0 flicked through the wad of cash in front of him as Salvador quietly compared the money to his newly acquired shotgun.

"I hate you both," he said, leaning against the table and looking towards the wall. Axton ignored him, plucking a note from Gaige's "gift" and holding it up for a stronger drink.  
"I'm a little too sober to do anything topless," he mumbled.  
"You're going to do it?"  
"Hey." The commando held up the wad of money. "You heard the day she had. Next time I'll just go with her."


	9. Playing house with guns

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 9 – Playing house with guns**

* * *

"Aw c'mon, it couldn't have been _that_ bad." Maya woke groggily to springs squeaking on the bunk above her. She blinked slowly, feeling the unfamiliar cotton in her head from her mild hangover. Her echo device lay across her chest, still saved at her open page of 'Sixty Shades.' She turned the offending device off.

"What I don't get is your robot buddy lives in your arm. And still, half the stuff I scrubbed off it swore at me."  
"Heh, you look a-dork-able when you try and do science. Besides, I'm thinking of making Deathtrap sport the 'mish-mash monster' look a while."  
Maya turned a creased eye towards the invading voices, immediately faced with Gaige's stockinged legs crossed at the heels and swinging back and forth. The girl's toes were wiggling and the springs started to squeak louder as she bounced on her bunk.

"I mean, you're rocking the polished turret and I've got the Frankenstein robot. And that's why we're such kick ass partners in crime."  
"Oh sure, you say partners when we both know you just want me for my body." Maya screwed her eyes shut as the striped legs squirmed and giggled, while Axton's voice continued from his bunk on the other side of small room.  
"And if you don't gimme my tags back, you can spend today _walking_ to the Dust." There was a jingling sound and a mumbled "spoil sport" before Maya heard the commando catch his chain.

"Goddess, will you two shut up or get a room already?" Maya rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and sat up slowly. Opposite her she saw Axton sitting on the edge of his bunk, polishing rag in one hand and an assault rifle in the other. He quirked an eyebrow and waved at the worse-for-wear siren, before Gaige's grinning face appeared upside down.

"Morning, sunshine. You missed the fun last night." The mechromancer smirked wickedly. "You could've put some of what you were reading into practice." Maya's face flushed and she screwed her eyes shut.  
'_It's not what I think. It's not what I think_," she thought. Inwardly she cursed Tannis and the echo-text that only fueled her imagination.  
"Behave yourself or I'll bend you over and spank you," she said instead. Gaige looked genuinely taken aback for a moment, giving the older woman a smug sense of satisfaction. Until the mechromancer grinned and asked in a hushed whisper if she could download the book Maya was reading.

"I never thought I'd hear you say that!" she continued. "And hey – I love me a little research." The siren glowered at the upside-down face, gritting her teeth and massaging her temple.  
"Zed. Hangover cure. Fetch. And _maybe_ I'll consider it." The younger woman was off the bunk and rushing out the door a moment later. When the room was finally quiet, Axton shook his head and continued polishing his rifle.  
"Gotta remember that for next time."

Maya regarded the commando quietly. The small part of her mind that wasn't full of feathers wanted to take action, to pry and learn just what inappropriate relationship could be developing between him and their youngest member. A divorced, older ex-serviceman and a high-school science engineer – the idea seemed fit for a poor, trashy romance novel. And then Axton pulled a neat pile of notes from his front pocket and tossed them across to her.

"Present from your drug runner," he said, nodding towards the door Gaige had left through. "You don't wanna know who and what she blew up to get it. Oh, but she says you have to 'lighten up more' if you want to earn it." Maya slowly flicked through the notes. Her staggered mind tried to understand the message and count the money at the same time, while Axton laughed and rambled on about Salvador gagging on a vegetable. Towards the bottom, the siren noticed some notes had blood and slag on them.

'Oh, fuck it,' she told herself. Since leaving Athenas for Pandora, she learned that "the real world" was absolutely nothing like what the Order of the Impending Storm made it out to be. There didn't seem to be sparkling fairy tales and idyllic lifestyles, or even right and wrong. Instead, it was all just life and death – the people who did whatever they could or would to make it to the end of the day, and the ones that didn't. In her foggy mind, Maya couldn't stop herself from thinking she had finally begun finding the answers she left the order to chase. Far from pretty, but enlightening all the same.

So, the siren leaned against the wall her bunk was against, crossing her bare legs underneath her and pocketing the money. If "lightening up more" was what she was told to do, maybe it was time to get with the same program everyone else was on. Hair ruffled and skin pale, she chewed a blue lip and gave Axton her best coy smirk.

"So – just how much money did she pay to pop your tags between her breasts?" The commando's eyes snapped up in shock, before the rifle he was polishing fell to the ground with a clatter.  
"What the hell do you girls learn in those books, anyway?" Maya laughed musically, feeling more relaxed than she had in a good while.

* * *

Salvador had a thing for the Moxxi girls, it seemed. Whether due to being a native of Pandora, or simply holding the words of his dear Grandmother at heart, the gunzerker just couldn't help himself. So with Scooter promising a flaming end if any of the Vault Hunters refused a request from his sister, the team soon found themselves in the middle of a long-standing clan war.

"Now, y'all take those emblems and that dynamite, and we're gonna have us some fun!" Salvador, Axton, Maya and Gaige piled into a cherry red (as the commando insisted) technical and headed towards the Hodunk speedway.  
"These two familias are legendary on Pandora!" Salvador bounced up and down in the back, using his large hands in an animated motion as he talked over the engine. "They kill each other for years before finding truce." Beside him, Maya frowned and leaned over.  
"What started them off?"  
"Nobody knows!"

It was Axton, yelling over the sound of his own driving, who began asking for the details. By the time they had reached the speedway, the Vault Hunters had a clearer image of both families. The Hodunk's, where Moxxi, Scooter and Ellie split away from, were a family that were obsessed with fast vehicles and dangerous raceways. They were also, as Salvador implied, closer than a family should be.  
"More inbred than a two-headed tunnel rat!"

The Zaford's were a stereotypical Irish clan who ran a gambling and bootlegging operation out of Overlook. A bar where everything was green and religious curses flowed with the Rakk-ale. Axton didn't think they sounded so bad – between the green, the booze and the hard-to-understand language, it was no different than being back in the military. A few urban legends of Zaford hazing and in-house brutality and he decided it was too much like the Dahl ranks.

"So, we're gonna light the match between these two and what, take bets?" Maya yelled over the noise of the truck, before Ellie's cheerful voice answered.  
"Well, ya could. Or, you could have a ton more fun and help 'em thin each other out a bit first! Check 'em out, see what they's got to offer. Take some o' their money and then decide whichin' to bump off!" Gaige stopped playing with the controls of the saw-blade turret, eyes going saucer-wide and slack jawed.

"Oh. My. Eff. It's like black ops." She kneeled down inside the turret and grinned at Axton. "It's, it's like black ops, Ax!" Before he could ask what she meant, she was back up and leaning over the edge of the railing. Salvador and Maya looked up to see her grinning madly.  
"Think about it! We can wear disguises and be different people, and meanwhile we'll be setting them up for a fall!" She began hoping back and forth inside the narrow turret with glee. "Maya! Tell 'em! Tell em how much fun it would be – like playing house with guns!"

The siren opened her mouth before catching herself, the cautious words of wisdom dying at the look of excitement on the younger woman's face. Instead, she pretended to hum and look thoughtful, remembering her epiphany from earlier that morning.  
"Why not?" She shrugged and smiled, settling back into the technical's flatbed. "Sounds like fun." Gaige whooped for joy and kneeled back down into the turret, where Axton tried to drive and make sense of what was being said behind him.  
"Trust me," she said. "This is gonna be so awesome."

* * *

Pandora's third largest tire rolled over the flimsy fencing of the Hodunk speedway, before wobbling and falling over on its side. It had managed to safely avoid crushing any of the rusted redneck trailers that the family used as housing.  
"Okay, I get that it's not on the sign anymore. Still," Maya crossed her arms and frowned. "I expected more." Salvador jogged across the dust and iron towards the fallen wheel, jumping up to drive the clover emblem on top. Meanwhile, Gaige was sitting awkwardly in the tiny space the turret provided, stretching a leg out and planting her foot against the dashboard.

"So remind me again – we're gonna get dressed up and offer ourselves as guns for hire for the Irish mob?" Axton scratched his cheek as she nodded enthusiastically.  
"Yep. We'll be tough but act sympathetic to their troubles, and offer to wipe the Hodunk scourge from the face of Pandora for money, booze and glory."  
"And _then_ we're gonna change again, head over here and be...?"  
"We'll work it out later." The mechromancer leaned against his shoulder and waved her metal fingers beside his face. "I'm thinking I'll be the brains of that con, and you can be my over-protective, often-shirtless aide." Behind them, a chorus of yells began to erupt from the collection of trailers. "Seriously though, consider the shirtless bit."  
"You said you didn't record that little stunt of yours."  
"And I didn't – why ya think I'm saying to do it again?"

The back of the technical jumped as Salvador climbed into the back, yelling "andele!" as a pair of gap-teethed Hodunk's climbed over the ruined fence, shotguns in hand. Axton floored the accelerator and jerked his thumb behind them as pellets flew through the air.  
"Try again, missy. 'Cause you don't have enough charms and money in the world to convince me."  
"Just promise me you'll be my over-protective something or other. Those wheel-worshippers must think a woman with a mechanical arm is a wet dream come true." Gaige sighed dramatically, slumping against the back of the turret.  
"Depends on which arm it is!" Axton yelled over the engine and threw her a grin, where-upon she sat up stunned and knocked her head against the firing controls. She rubbed her forehead and swore as the technical shot a saw blade into the passing landscape.

* * *

Axton and Salvador shuffled back and forth awkwardly. The Zaford beer distillery was an ugly tank of a thing, and probably took weeks off the lifespan of anyone who drank from it. Still, locked away in its aged, green depths was that core of pure alcohol. And neither man was eager to add dynamite to the mix.

"You do it." Axton pushed the explosives towards Salvador, who put his hands up and backed away.  
"No, you do it."  
"... I don't wanna."

The girls sat back in the technical observing the exchange, Gaige slumped half-out of the turret while Maya observed her nails in the back. The mechromancer began drumming her steel fingers, growing steadily bored. It didn't take a genius level of advanced engineering and applied science to know that dynamite plus alcohol created fun. And anarchy, which meant more fun. Instead, she was watching Axton and Salvador pout and play quick games of Rock /Paper/ Scissors.

"Boys," Maya stood up and stretched in the back of the cargo tray. "If you two are afraid of a little burning booze, you can sit in the truck and we'll do the job." Gaige chewed her thumb to stifle her giggles as the two men glared and regarded each other.  
"We're working out stuff!" Salvador roared back. "Like wind and bang and so forth!"  
"And spread."  
"Si, spread!"  
"It's dangerous."  
"Yeah! Very fatal almost, maybe."  
"We're very brave men!"

Both commando and gunzerker nodded at each other in satisfaction, before a sharp noise cut the air. A rusted saw blade sunk into the ground beside them, throwing both men onto their backs with a yelp of fright. The moment stretched on before either of them dared to look up, catching sight of the heated blade, a coy Gaige, and the path the saw took through the distillery. Green dyed fluid was streaming through the gash.

"My finger slipped-" She began, when the distillery ignited, blasting the steel top completely off before toppling over. The sound of outrage inside was deafening. Axton and Salvador jumped to their feet and jogged back to the truck, stopping just long enough to slap the Hodunk emblem on the still flaming tank. The technical was gone when a throng of Zaford soldiers piled out of the bar, weeping openly and composing poetry about their loss.

As Axton drove back to the Dust, Salvador threw a heavy hand across his heart and was caught between panting and chuckling from the excitement. In the cab, a meek Gaige reached over and wiped a smudge of dirt off of the commando's tattooed brow.  
"Heh. Sorry, Ax. Forgive me?"  
"I'm not protecting you from any hillbilly Hodunk's." She sat back, a look of hurt flashing on her face before he gave her a sideways glance and smirked. "If there's trouble, I'll just hide behind you."

* * *

Ellie swung her massive wrench around and scratched an itch in the middle of her back, groaning when she hit the right spot. She had the same demure smile as her brother, trying to look apologetic.  
"Sorry, been dyin' to get that one for awhile now. Been too busy laughin' my cute ass off at them two idiots on the echo." She waddled back inside her garage, oblivious to the mix of incredulous looks behind her. "Ole Papa Hodunk is jabbering on about dragging the Irish through the Dust, while Mick Zaford issued a call t' arms."

Their technical was de-constructed by the Catch-a-ride as she leaned against a heavy tool chest and grinned broadly. "I tell ya's, by the time it's all over, at least one of those backward buncha dorks will be in the ground, and y'all clean up big." The Vault Hunters shuffled out of the garage into Pandora's evening, hearing a final cry of "-an don't tell Moxxi!"

"Sooo-..." Gaige ambled beside Axton, crossing her mismatched arms behind her head. "I know I kinda almost blew you up back there, but y'know..." She made a vague gesture with her hand, trailing off and looking back up towards him. The commando stopped and regarded her coolly, saying nothing.  
"I mean, c'mon, we all have accidents. And what was the worst of it? You bruised your butt?" She stood in front of him, blocking his way to the Fast-Travel station that Maya and Salvador disappeared through. There was little emotion on his face.

"Oh, c'mon!" She stamped her foot and glared. "I said sorry! What I gotta do, strip and shake my ass for ya?" The mechromancer spun and wiggled her skirt back and forth, though both fists were balled in the air. "Cuz' if you think I'm gonna beg you to get over it, you-" She looked over her shoulder and froze, as Axton was grinning and peeping through a window made with his hands.

"Don't stop on my account."  
"Oh, you dick-!" Gaige swung a right hook, tumbling forward and catching herself as he stepped backwards.  
"C'mon, you gotta work on your reflexes, missy." He waggled his eyebrows and winked. "Only way I'm gonna survive hanging around you."  
"Well that's gonna end when I get ya!" She dashed forward, only for the commando to sidestep and dance away. Minutes later when Ellie was closing the shutters of her garage, she caught sight of the pair of them chasing each other back and forth. Curses and taunts were flying between the pair as Gaige promised to make him suffer.

"Aw, ain't that cute?" Ellie sighed, before tugging the shutter down. "Hope one of 'em wins 'fore the spiderant's get 'em."

Gaige finally broke off her attack, leaning against the garage and panting greedily. Axton joined her, leaving her annoyed at how little out of breath he was.  
"You suck," she gasped.  
"You wish."  
"You can't prove anything." He chuckled easily and gave her shoulder a tug. She didn't think twice as she slid the extra few inches and pushed her weight against his arm, still trying to get her breath back.

"Sorry 'gain," she mumbled. He shook his head.  
"Don't worry about it. Just come up with something better than a shirtless aide for tomorrow." She looked up from the corner of her eye, catching Axton winking playfully.  
"Still gonna play house with me, are ya?"  
"Someone's gotta keep you in line. May as well be me."  
"Aw, you just want me for my body."

The pair pushed off from the garage wall and headed for the Fast Travel network, neither noticing as Axton kept his arm draped over her shoulder and the evening chill began to seep in over the Dust.  
"So, you even got any extra stuff to play disguise in, or am I gonna need to give you a loan again?" She bumped her arm into his ribs and he coughed, pulling a wad of cash from his back pocket.  
"Courtesy of Zer0," he said as he held the cash out for her. "If you're buying, you may as well know that I'm not cheap."

Gaige plucked the money with her prosthetic hand and glanced up, brow furrowed.  
"Why didn't he take it?"  
"Same reason he took today off. He said 'no deal' on being less mysterious."  
"Well, shit."  
"Mm."


	10. No seatbelt's required

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 10 - No seatbelt's required**

* * *

"If you've got a flame weapon, keep it to yourself." Maya crinkled her nose as the lobby of the Holy Spirits bar welcomed them. Despite the heavy door that separated them from the rest of the bar, the thick odour of alcohol and sweat filled the air. A collection of pamphlets for Moxxi's various "Circle of Slaughter" tournaments were pasted to the wall, looking damp and aged. Gaige held a metal finger up and hesitated before poking one experimentally, blanching at the sloppy sound it made.

"Yeah, this place screams 'flammable,' don'tcha think?" The mechromancer cocked her hip and crossed her arms. "But hey, just makes us look all the better!" She grinned and adjusted the floppy beret-cap on her head, playing with her newly-styled hair. She gave a cheeky grin and jabbed the siren in the ribs.  
"If you talk with any kind of bad-ass accent, I'll give you my next three sub machines, Maya."

The older woman sniffed and rolled her visible eye – the other hidden by a borrowed eye-patch. While Gaige was toning down her hair, Maya had adopted a swept up-and-back look, a far cry from her usual bob. The "one-eyed spy," as Moxxi had flirtingly dubbed it. And they had to admit – she was pulling off the cold, killer-for-hire look well.  
"Please – I'm not that easy. You'll have to make them elementals."

"My agent will contact your agent." She nudged Axton in his ribs before stage-whispering "that's you."  
The commando adjusted his cap, covering his Sergeant tattoo further.  
"Make it an assault rifle and _I'll_ do an accent."  
"Deal's off, Maya."  
The siren rolled her eyes and knocked on the steel door, announcing their arrival.  
"I agreed to all this, let's get on with it," she begged. The door swung open and the three Vault Hunters, decked out in various shades of green, ambled into the bar. The sound of conversations stopped.

"An' who in the depths o' Hell are _you_?" The bar was full of bandits and nitwits. A sweaty drink was in every hand. Together they all looked like a gathering of tall leprechaun's. A seemingly important figure behind the bar threw his arm over a tap and leaned forward, squinting at the trio. Maya stepped forward, all poise and grace, casting her un-shielded eye towards the speaker.

"We just came from a run-in with the Hodunk's, and we don't like them very much." Gaige was disappointed, but unsurprised – even when calm and controlled, Maya's voice carried an edge of authority. But the mechromancer was determined to have as much fun as she could. She cocked her hip and shifted to show off her artificial arm.

"Ve heard on Echo-net –you pay in bullets, booze und blood, ja?" Important Leprechaun nodded slowly, regarding the new arrivals with a discerning eye.  
"Ah, that's right. Would ye be lookin' fer some work now, eh?" Gaige allowed herself to show a cocky grin, oozing the same confidence that hired mercenaries always seemed to display in the gangster echo-films she had seen.  
"S'long as we can kill us some Hodunk's, reckon we are, matey." The smile slid from her face, and she could feel a similar look of shock on Maya from next to her. Gaige couldn't tell if it was a pirate or a native to Anzac Three. Just that Axton sounded both awesome and hilarious at once. Either way, the important leprechaun looked pleased.

"Now tha', I can promise ye. Mick Zaford's the name, an welcome to the Lucky Spirits!"

* * *

"These bomb's actually smell like whiskey." Gaige sat back in the technical (having been banned from the turret for at least a week), cradling the Zaford dynamite. She wrinkled her nose when one jumped closer to her face as Maya drove over another rock. "Like, I think they've got booze _inside_ them."  
"Make's em blow up harder. Dune." Axton reached down and grabbed a pair of sticks off of her while grabbing the rail of the turret. Gaige braced herself as the truck sailed up and over another sand dune. They landed with a bump and she swore.  
"Hey, her driving is worse than my shooting. Just sayin'."  
"I don't understand that accent, sorry."

Gaige leveled an exaggerated frown and flipped her middle metal finger up.  
"Hey, mine was sexy as hell, bucko. What were you supposed to be, a drowned buccanear?" Axton grinned and laughed.  
"Fella I went through basic with, came from one of the Anzacs. Three or six, can't remember, not important. Guy had a hellova voice box on 'em. Til he smoked too much and lost it, anyway."  
"War is Hell. Seriously, though..." Gaige settled back further in the flatbed and smirked up. "I could've died laughing if I wasn't such a kick-ass actress, Ax."

Axton crossed his hands over top of one another, holding a stick of dynamite in each.  
"I 'ope you're not forgetting our little deal, sweetheart. It'd be a bloody shame if I were t' drop one o' these." He wiggled one of the bombs loosely, and this time she did throw her head back and laugh.  
"Oh no, how vill I ever forget our lee-ttle... arrangement?" Gaige smirked seductively, chewing her bottom lip and trying to push her chest out while holding onto the explosives. "You know I vould never forget zat lovely rifle vith your name on it, darling."

"You two really are getting a charge out of this, aren't you?" Gaige rolled her eyes at Maya's exasperated tone.  
"Yeah well, you could be too if you wanted to have some fun with us."  
"Oh, but I am." The mechromancer shrieked as the technical launched into the air, rocketing off another high sand dune.

* * *

Gaige ripped off a strip of tape and pressed the dynamite against the crate.  
"Whiskey bombs attached to fireworks. I feel like we should add more junk, like sparklers and noise makers." She flicked on the remote sensor and admired her work. On the other end of the Hodunk Raceway jump, Axton was repeating her actions, while their "one-eyed spy" was chatting to a nearby pyrotechnic, learning the ins and outs of his detonator. She met the commando halfway along, where he put the finishing touches on the final crate.

"Ve haff finished rigging track to go boom, Mister Zaford." Gaige watched Axton roll his eyes and smirk while she grinned into her Echo. A rambunctious laughter filled the line as they strolled towards the viewing platform, where Maya was examining the detonator.  
"Ye did good! Now, get yerselves up on tha' platform, and take out any Hodunk witnesses." When the line cut off, Gaige frowned and crossed her arms.

"Kinda... murderous, huh? I mean..." She rolled her hands in the air, tripping on her words. "It's not like they're psychos or bandits who shoot at us first."  
"Minus our incident with their tire, anyway," he replied. But she wasn't quite convinced, pouting and forcing Axton onto the ladder first.  
"You already know they're cherry red, now climb," she explained.

At the top of the ladder, she was only further disappointed by how placid the Hodunk appeared to be. He was certainly thick-headed and out of shape, sitting on a chair with a heavy shotgun across his lap. But still, he seemed friendly enough, and was chatting to Maya as cars began cruising around the course.

"I tell 'ya," he grinned. "When that thar plunger get's plunged, that track lights up quicker'n Uncle Marlon did when he peed on a live railway line." Maya cringed but nodded, keeping a keen eye on the detonator.  
"Sounds like fun," she mumbled. Gaige watched Axton quietly step behind the pyrotechnic, chewing his lip and trying to decide the quickest way to work.  
"Boy howdy." The Hodunk cracked his knuckles and relaxed into his seat. "Man, only thing funner than a Hodunk Race is the time ah tied a couple o' cats together and skipped rope wif 'em. Boy, now _that _was-"

A whooshing of air threw Axton onto his back as the Hodunk was lifted high in one of Maya's Phaselocks. The siren silently clenched her fist, crushing their potential witness. Both commando and mechromancer stared, taking in her now-messy hair and the cold stare in her visible eye.  
"I like cats," was all she said, before picking up the detonator and turning her back on them. Axton pushed himself up off the ground as a trio of racers zipped past, and the siren detonated the explosives.

Between the fireworks, the car parts and the Phaselocked Hodunk, it had been a morning for light shows.

* * *

Despite blowing up a handful of runners, Maya's mood hadn't improved much when they returned to Sanctuary. She ruffled her hair out of its new style and departed for Marcus' shop.  
"I don't feel much like changing clothes and pretending to help a bunch of hillbillies," she said, and they suspected she was off to the firing range to blow off some steam. While Axton didn't have much love for cats, he had to agree with her: interacting with the Hodunk's seemed like a waste of time and energy that could be better invested in shooting and looting.

Like it or lump it though, they were committed to seeing this half-assed feud through. And heading back into the Dust dressed like a pair of walking limes was a shortcut to getting shot at. The commando and mechromancer parted ways long enough to restock and re-hydrate at Moxxi's before meeting up again at Pierce Station. If Axton wasn't so used to her presence, he may have had a hard time recognizing her. Gaige had swapped the lime look for the Torgue logo, but almost all of her hair was hidden under a boyish cap.

"Dunno if I like you lookin' all "one-eyed spy", Ax." She reached up and gave a cheeky poke to his cheek. Between a beanie hat and Maya's eye patch, nobody would have guessed he was the same man who helped murder a group of drivers half an hour beforehand. The commando snorted and pulled the peak of her cap down.  
"Look who's talking. I usually hang out with someone more _adult_ than you, kiddo." She huffed and gave a quick smack to his abdomen.  
"Yeah well, I don't wanna take any chances with these guys. They probably haven't seen an un-related woman outside of the Echo-net. And I figure it's the complete opposite of the sexy babe who helped wreck a race course this morning." Her mouth pulled back into a cocky grin and she waggled her eyebrows.

"I'm pretty sure the Anzac dude who helped her pull it all off couldn't help himself. I mean..." She shrugged theatrically. "The poor guy was probably thinking 'how can I get such an ass-kicking beauty to notice me?'"  
"You left out how modest she was, too."  
"Oh yeah, totally." She led the way to the Fast Travel network, chirping away the whole time. "He was probably thinking 'man, I'd love to see her polishing _my_ turret topless.' That sound about right?"

Axton keyed in the co-ordinates for the Dust and looked back at Gaige, who was almost floating with the same smug glee that he had come to expect from her anarchy rampages. Fortunately, like her blood lust, he had managed to work out just the right formula for pulling her back down to earth.  
"Close – I bet he was thinking how much better it would be if she were polishing _bottomless_."  
Gaige's jaw swung open and she gaped at him, trying to start half-formed words and think of a come-back at the same time. He only smirked before firing up the Fast Travel.

* * *

Soon enough, the pair stood in front of the main Hodunk building, watching in the distance as a group of shirtless rednecks were pulling apart a destroyed racer from their earlier excursion.  
"You can do the talking, seeing how you have all the answers," Gaige huffed.  
"Just means you agree with them, missy." She stayed silent, and soon the commando had hailed a nearby Hodunk to introduce themselves to.

"Oi Tector! You got a couple o' Vault Hunter's out here, sayin' they heard yer Echo!" He pointed towards a plain building and wandered off, while the door opened and a heavy figure slipped outside. Tall, pear shaped and jug-eared, the Hodunk stared out at them both like they were a pair of meals. Gaige had to bury the urge to either summon Deathtrap or hide behind Axton's back. When he beckoned them both to step closer, she made a fist with her prosthetic hand. Axton merely slipped his thumbs into his pockets and strolled closer to the shed.

"Well..." Tector Hodunk gave a predatory grin, before hawking back and spitting beside him. "Ain't you a pair o' pretty boys." Gaige stopped mid-step – the disgust and mild fear melting. And she was sure the confused noise she made was anything but boyish. Regardless, the massive redneck didn't notice – he just pointed a stumpy finger at both herself and Axton, moving back and forth.

"I can't decide which one o' you fella's is 'sposed t'be the cuter one!" He doubled over, ham-hock palms over his knees as he laughed heartily. And Gaige felt a stab of anger she hadn't experienced since Marcie Holloway told the school that she was a 'freaky geek girl'. She grabbed Axton by his arm and whirled him around, hissing furiously.

"He thinks I'm a guy!" The commando's arched brow didn't help.  
"Yep." He chewed his lip before slowly smirking and nodding.  
"The hell? Look at me – isn't it obvious I'm a woman?!" Axton continued to nod thoughtfully, pushing her ire further.  
"Oh, he thinks you're pretty alright."  
"I have tits, for fucks sake! Nice ones!" His eyes began to crinkle and his chest shook, and Gaige had never felt such a desire to hit him.  
"Yeah, well he has tits too."  
"I'm gonna kill him. Then I'll kill you."

Before Gaige began stamping towards the pear-shaped Hodunk, Axton grabbed her hips and lifted her up off the ground. She gave a squawk and waved her arms, before he planted her back on the dusty sand and held her there.  
"Now listen to me," he leaned down until they were eye to eye, and she stubbornly looked away.  
"Hey – you and me can use this. Gaige, look at me!" That got her attention – the few times he had called her that and not a quick pet name was few and far between. She gave him her attention – anger still bubbling under the surface.

"Look," he shot a quick glance over at the still chuckling redneck. "If these guys are that thick it just makes our job easier." He took his hands from her hips and began counting off on his fingers.  
"They're not gonna try anything funny with you, for starters. They're just gonna buy whatever dumbass story we sell 'em. And we're gonna let 'em pay us to stitch them up, okay? Just let me do the talking and you can do the shooting." Gaige was quiet, shooting the redneck another glare before gazing back at Axton. She chewed her lip and frowned.

"Fine, whatever, don't care." She began to turn away when she felt him grab her hand and pull her back around. Her face began to twist into a frustrated glare before she felt rough fingers brush her hair out of her eyes and she froze.  
"Hey." Hey eyes snapped up to his when he spoke. "Wanna know something? I think you're a pretty gorgeous woman, y'know." Gaige immediately felt her cheeks match her hair and she ducked her head, chewing her lip and looking at the ground.  
"Gah, dork," she muttered. "You just want me for my body."  
"Of course, who wouldn't?" Axton's familiar chuckle and wink earned him a roll of the eyes. But her anger was vanishing and she was smiling again.  
"C'mon, mechromancer. Let's go con some rednecks." She grinned and nodded, motioning with her cybernetic arm.  
"After you, commando."  
"Ah, you just wanna stare at my ass, missy."  
"Yeah well, who wouldn't?"

* * *

Gaige's rage at Tector Hodunk evaporated over time. Axton once again adopted his Anzac accent, and his cheerful talking was enough to pull her out of her dark mood. But mainly, he was acting like such a goofball with the slow redneck that she became happy to just stand back and observe the conversation.

"Y'all sure you ain't like, watered-down Hodunk? You sound a bit like yah come offa Lil' Macka's family tree. Him's a second cousin, thrice removed."  
"Nah, sorry fella. I don't speak tire or engine like you guys do." The commando rubbed the back of his neck and looked sheepish, before gesturing towards Gaige. "I let this one do the driving for the both o' us. Best bloody getaway driver you could want." Tector nodded and gave the quiet mechromancer a more-approving look, before snapping his overall suspenders and spitting on the ground again.

"Tha's good, 'cause sounds like Papa's got us a dayum good idea to get back at those Zaford cusshounds." The heavy redneck stepped aside, casting an eye back towards the building he exited. Cruising steadily across the sand and stringing a banjo was a bald, one-legged man in a wheelchair. Gaige almost thought she wouldn't survive looking at the massive mustache he had. When the little old man opened his mouth to talk, she firmly bit down on one of her knuckles to stifle her explosive laughter.

Axton arched a brow and opened his mouth. He closed it, opened it again, and finally turned to Tector.

"What'd he say?" His accent had slipped, but nobody seemed to notice or react.  
"He said that we got us a plan already in the works, but ya gotta get yourselves to an Echo we smuggled into the Zaford Den of Wickedness – the Holy Spirits!" Axton leaned back as Tector leaned forward dramatically, voice dropping and eyes narrowing. "It's called a 'Dead drop'. 'Cause we're gonna use military smarts to wipe those drunkards out. Y'know..." The Hodunk leaned back and smiled, tapping himself in the side of the head.  
"Ya gotta be smart up in th' brain meat to understand all that army stuff like we's do. Don't feel bad if ya don't get it at first."

"Yeah, I'll ah, keep it in mind." Gaige could feel Axton begin to glower a bit from the Hodunk hospitality and she gave him a quick nudge in the back.  
"Accent!" she hissed.  
"Er, matey."

There was a final, solemn-sounding collection of gibberish from the old Hodunk, before he elbowed a lever and the wheelchair took him back to the shade of the shack. Tector nodded, calling out "yew tell em, Pa!" as he left. "Papa wants to know who the badass Vault Hunters are who's gonna help us finally win this war." Axton grinned broadly and threw an arm across Gaige's narrow shoulders. He twisted to show the ever-present patch on his sleeve.  
"We're the bloody Skulls, we are." Despite herself, Gaige smirked and leaned into his arm, bearing her skull-emblazoned shirt. Tector nodded slowly, as though he had begun to understand a bewitching mystery.

"Oh, I geddit. Man, you help us wipe the Zaford scourge from the face o' Pandora, we'll spray that on yer own Runner." Tector spread his massive hands in front of him, as though he were unveiling a sign. "The Bloodeh Skulls. And underneath, th' Hodunk motto! 'Wheels are better than heels!'" He planted his fists on his hips and nodded to himself. "Yup. All o' that could be yours. Now go on, git! They ain't gonna kill 'emselves, now."

'Not since we blew up their booze, anyway,' they both thought.


	11. Double agents

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 11 – Double agents**

* * *

Jeffery Blake tapped a button and reclined back into his plush office chair. There was a puff of oxygen outside his window as a vacuum chute opened, and a violin was sucked into space. Jack's latest hobby ensured a dozen of the instruments were positioned across the lunar station, so that one could be readily available at a moment's notice. So far he had broken a total of four strings, two bows and completely smashed one across a table in a tantrum. Blake would only privately admit that he felt a perverse sense of satisfaction at removing them from earshot.

As Jack's sixth wooden victim began to be pulled towards Pandora's atmosphere, the Echo on his desk beeped softly and constructed a note. Blake snatched the paper strip, brow arching as he read the message before screwing it up and throwing it inside the emptied chute. Then he stood and left, hoping to find another violin to jettison – it seemed a shame to waste an opportunity.

'_So, #1340 met the Vault Hunters after all,_' he mused, recalling the note informing him of the Loader's self-destruction.

* * *

"What is it?" Salvador pushed a burnt robotic limb, slowly picking up the glowing electric core. He turned it over slowly, gazing at the lights playing off its surface.  
"It's Hyperion, so it's bad. End of story." Maya held a glowing hand across it when it flashed and yelled in protest. The Vault Hunters jumped in shock and it clattered to the ground, Zer0's blade hovering beside it dangerously.

"Please, do not be alarmed." The voice that echoed up from the core was familiar – the staggered, synthetic phrases from the same Hyperion robots who attempted to kill them around every corner.  
"I don't trust it." Maya looked up at Zer0, giving a short nod and the assassin raised his blade. This time it was Salvador who yelled, scooping the core up and away from the glowing edge. Zer0's helmet flashed a question mark, but the gunzerker was too busy fawning over the electrical box.

"What is your name?" he asked, holding up the isolated core.  
"I am Loader number one, three, four... oh." The disembodied voice rattled monotonously, skipping a beat occasionally. Salvador leaned back and screwed up his big face as though holding something foul.  
"That is bad name. How about... Juan Francisco?" He grinned broadly. Behind him, Maya and Zer0 exchanged a look.

"Sal, you can't be serious?" she asked.  
"No good can come here. Our enemy is hiding. It can be anything." Salvador looked alarmed, shielding the core from their accusing glares.  
"No! Juan Francisco is good robot!" The core in question flashed blue, voice whirring weakly.  
"My body has-has-has been destroyed. I require a replacement." The gunzerker looked alarmed again, holding it closer and looking on, eyes wide with worry.  
"Where Juan? Where will we get new body for you?"  
"A deactivated Constructor on the dam."

"You gotta be kidding me." Maya crossed her arms, wondering if she should have re-joined Axton and Gaige after burning off her aggression in Marcus' shooting range. "Like we're actually gonna plug it into a working Construc - oh come on!" Salvador was running through the ruined Bloodshot dam, holding the core under one arm like a football. Zer0 had already begun walking after him, leaving the siren alone.  
"I just know this is gonna come back and bite me right in my curvy ass," she growled before marching off after them.

* * *

Axton squirmed in his seat, trying to ignore the springs digging into him from the cushions of the Holy Spirits. Across from him, Gaige held up a menu to try and obscure their faces. The bar full of Zaford's were all different stages of drunk, celebrating the destruction of the Hodunk raceway. Despite getting in alright, they still stood out in the sea of green, and they had pushed themselves into an inconspicuous seating set on the upper balcony. Axton fiddled with an Echo recorder, their dead drop, until the volume was set to a more private level. They each cast a quick look down at the bar, watching a bandit fall off his stool, landing in a heap and yelling a "Heyo!" before passing out. Gaige replayed the Hodunk Echo.

"_This on? Testin'? One, three, four, testin._" The commando and mechromancer shared a deadpan look, rolling their eyes and leaning closer to the tinny voice. "_The Zaford's have 'emselves a secret cash stash, but we dunno where cus' it's a secret 'n so forth. Paw says find their Bagman – lil guy with a shotgun who likes a talkin' to 'imself. Now, pretend ya know a bit about spies and black ops n' stuff: find 'im, follow 'im, rob 'im. This Echo will self destruct, if alkyhol is spilt upon it_."

The Echo ended and Gaige swiftly crushed the screen between her cybernetic fingers, throwing the crumpled device under the table.  
"How much you wanna bet he's second generation inbred?" she asked, sweeping plastic shards from her artificial hand.  
"At least third generation. Money or dare?"  
"Dare. And if I win, you're giving me another DT polishing show." She grinned wickedly as the commando drummed his fingers and looked thoughtful.  
"If I win, you're polishing my turret."  
"Fine. Oh, and you'll be topless. Forgot to mention."  
"That's fine - you'll be bottomless." She kicked him under the table in reflex.

"Hell. No."  
"Sorry, a bet's a bet. And before you say it, your Deathtrap is way too sharp for me to go anywhere near it in the altogether." He smirked playfully and she pouted.  
"It's only a bet if we shake hands," she conceded. She stuck her prosthetic out and squeezed the air, grinning evilly as she mimed the same crushing motion she used on the Echo.  
"No bet then," he said, unable to hide his smile as she sat back smugly. He leaned against the railing of the balcony, keeping an eye on the bar below while Gaige crossed her hands behind her head and relaxed. It was good to see her back in good spirits, he thought.

They both saw him at the same time, swinging a shotgun towards the ground and happily muttering to himself. They waited until he backed a door open and wandered out of sight before he gave her hand a squeeze and they made their way down stairs.

"Show me how it's done, commando," she grinned when they slipped inside a hallway. The Bagman's voice was steadily vanishing through a door at the end and Axton creeped forward.  
"Stay low, close and you might learn something." He waggled his eyebrows and moved quietly down the hall, followed closely by Gaige, who was un-ashamedly watching his rear.

* * *

Zer0 plunged his sword into the Constructor, flipping himself up into the air and landing on top gracefully. He aimed a revolver down into the lighter armor and snapped off a few rounds before the robot shook and he hopped off.

"Look at how slow I'm moving while I try and kill you!" it bellowed. "Hurry and die and remove me! But not in that order!" A burning laser spread from its head, trying and failing to slice Maya in half before the angry siren pummelled it with shotgun shells. Salvador however had taken a different approach – firing a rifle with one hand and wagging a finger with the other in a shaming motion.

"Bad Juan Francisco! Very bad!" he yelled as the Constructor finally began to wane on its legs. It toppled forward just far enough for Zer0 to push his sword into the main housing. With a graceful spin, he kicked his handle and pried the front of the robot off. The glowing Loader core landed in a heap on the ground, before Salvador grabbed it and continued to tell it off.

"Salvador, drop it off the dam and we'll get you a goldfish." The gunzerker held the core to his chest and turned away.  
"No! Juan Francisco will behave!" The core beeped pathetically in his hands.  
"I am Loader number one three four-"  
"Juan Francisco! And you will behave or be _eaten_." Salvador held the core up and glared, intimidating the artificial intelligence enough to cut it off. Instead, the synthetic voice identified a nearby War Loader.

"Oh no, no no no no. We're sassy, we're daring and we're insane, but we're not stupid." Maya's arms crossed her chest and she glared. Zer0 tilted his head, helmet displaying an exclamation mark. The siren pinched her nose and tried a different tactic.  
"Look, wait until Gaige checks it. She speaks computer – she might make your new pet more... docile." The gunzerker narrowed his eyes before waving around them.  
"And where are tech-heads, hm? Where are my co-owners of The Happy Pig?" The icon on Zer0's helmet changed to a question mark and Maya shook her head.  
"They're off playing double-agents in the Dust, but Sal-"

Salvador clutched the core to his chest again. "If they get to play fun games, so will I!" he declared, marching off in the direction of the War Loader. A watery "thank you" bleeped up from the core as he did. The remaining Vault Hunters just sighed and followed.

* * *

The Bagman spent most of the journey talking to himself. Specifically, to a voice in his head, who he had simply named "Voice in me head."  
"Good one, Voice in me head! You always know what t' say!" With years of experience, Axton followed silently, keeping low and pressing his body against any cover he could find. Following along in scuffing sneakers, Gaige would tip toe and hide where possible. For a deranged, possibly drunk Zaford, he was annoyingly good at hearing noises behind him. At least once she had skidded into Axton, who pulled her closer into his small space and held a finger to her mouth.  
"Easy, we're almost there," he whispered into her ear, and she licked her dry lips.

He gently pushed her back, peering out from their cover and into the empty passageway. He nodded and they crept up, covering both sides of an opened security door. They peered in, taking in the sight of a natural cavern. A wide cave entrance looked out into the ranges beneath Overlook, but the real sight was the mass of chests in the middle of the room. The Bagman dropped his shotgun onto a table, still chatting to himself, before opening a strongbox and pulling stacks of money out.

"If I was greedy," Gaige whispered. "I'd say screw everything and let's just live here." Axton covered his mouth with his hand and fought off a laugh.  
"Let's have the best of both worlds," he winked back, motioning for her and stepping out into the room. The each drew a pair of weapons and sneaked up on the Zaford. The commando walked up behind him and pulled his beanie cap down tighter.

"Whatcha' countin'? That moneh?" he asked casually, voice straining in a thick Hodunk accent.  
"Ah, tis! I be countin' money for me Pa!" The Bagman cheerfully nodded adding notes to one pile from another.  
"So it's cash moneh? Leafy, greeny, spendin' moneh?" Gaige waggled her eyebrows, perfecting the redneck accent.  
"Yep yep, tis indeed! Ye like money?"  
"Oh yeah. In fact, we'd like to take it all fer the Hodunk's, feller."

The Bagman went rod still, dropping the notes he was counting. Gaige raised her shotgun warily. "Oh yea, Papa Hodunk says we can fixulate our race track with it..." she continued, throwing Axton a questioning look. He shrugged and grit his teeth, reaching to grab the Zaford's shoulder.  
"So, how about you git out and we can-" The Bagman spun around and screamed loudly in his face – a piercing wailing that left Axton reeling back and shielding his ear.

"Hodunk's! Hodunk's!" The Zaford slammed a hand onto a buzzer and grabbed his shotgun. "Hodunk's in the cash stash!" He cocked his weapon and whirled back around as Axton and Gaige both fired – a pair of rounds catching him in the face and shredding everything above the neck. The commando swore and rubbed his ear before noticing a flashing light.

"We're gonna have company soon," he fumed, pulling his Dahl deck from his hip. Gaige grabbed his wrist with her hand, stopping him.  
"Too hi-tech," she said, swishing her prosthetic up and constructing her Deathtrap. The hulking robot swooped through the door, tearing jagged chunks out of the walls as it went. "He looks more like a Hodunk weapon... which really sucks, come to think of it." She quietly pouted, thinking it over before Axton tilted her head up and nodded towards the chests.  
"C'mon – you can buy nothing but the best for the big guy when we're done here."

The pair worked quickly, opening chest after chest and pocketing stacks of money. Soon enough the hallway filled with angry, drunken voices, followed by Deathtrap's robotic roars. Sounds of a fierce scuffle grew closer. When Gaige emptied her seventh chest she heard static and growls before checking an indicator on her steel wrist.

"You're kiddin' me," she huffed. "Ax, we gotta go! DT's down!" The commando was fiddling with a lock near the open cave, looking up in confusion. He cupped his hand around his ringing ear and shouted for her to repeat herself.  
"I said, we gotta move!" A wave of green slush flew through the ruined door, catching her across the back and melting a nearby rock. She hissed and jogged to Axton, who grabbed her hips and lifted her up onto a lowered ramp before she could utter a word.

The pair soon found themselves in Overlook, hands on knees and catching their breath. Recovering sooner, the commando turned her around and inspected her back for damage.  
"What was that, corrosive spray?" he asked, making sure she was unharmed. She nodded.  
"Yeah – frickin' ton of it." She looked sheepish and fanned herself with her cap. "Stuff eats through metal – no wonder Deathtrap didn't last as long." He nodded, looking over her hip before she smirked and turned away. "I'm fine, my shield soaked it up. But damn, they had a ton of it."

Axton cast a wary eye towards the bar and puffed, nodding.  
"'Course they did – it's green." He slipped his arm across her shoulder and steered her towards Overlook's fast travel. Her prosthetic slipped up around his waist. "C'mon, lady. Let's collect our pay."

* * *

Blake frowned as his Echo constructed yet another message. It was a surprising message, though not as confusing as the last few:  
_Loader #1340 reactivated. Error: War Loader unit not calibrated. Encountered group: Vault Hunters. Orders: Terminate / Self Destruct_. Blake sighed and screwed the note up, tossing it inside the chute. It landed on yet another violin, surrounded by several other pieces of paper.

"It seems we have a malfunctioning A.I.," he said, speaking into his intercom. "Reprogram number one three four oh and sever ties from Hyperion. It will eventually meet its end out among some Bandits, and perhaps take a few of them out in the process." He cut the connection before receiving an answer, and emptied the chute once more.

* * *

Gaige and Axton strolled into Moxxi's, slipping a few notes each into her tip jar and easing into a booth. The commando slipped a hand through his fallen hair, while the mechromancer was busily pulling hers into their familiar tails.

"So I'm thinking, if I can counter DT's Bee-Eff-Eff circuits, I might be able to equip him with a shield unit," she said, adjusting her hair as Axton rest his chin in his palm and nodded. "Y'know, sharing is caring after all, and he'd be that much more versatile. What's better than a heavily armored, shielded killing machine?"  
"Don't stop," he mumbled playfully. "I could listen to you talk all day." She stuck her tongue out before hopping up.  
"Of course you can – buy you a drink, soldier?"  
"I'm easy but I ain't cheap."  
"Just had a pay day – I can afford ya."

When she managed to get Moxxi's attention, the bartender looked from one weary Vault Hunter to the other before winking flirtingly.

"Fun day, sugar?" Gaige rolled her eyes, tempted to mutter 'I wish'.  
"A bunch of Zaford's tried to melt me," she replied instead, pulling some notes out from her pocket. Surprisingly, Moxxi's playful mood soured and she tsk'd loudly.  
"Oh, tell me it's not that stupid feud again. Who started it this time?" Gaige gave a long, blank "uh" as an answer, but Moxxi shook her head and frowned. "Drunks and rednecks – mark my words, one day soon, they'll kill each other off, all together." The mechromancer hummed and nodded, wondering if word of their exploits had gotten out. Soon enough though, Moxxi sighed and became her smiling, seductive self.

"Sorry hon – I shouldn't let it out at you. Here, on the house – you... you've earned it." She winked playfully and reached into her cleavage, pulling out a bottle of beer. Gaige was sure her eyes could have fallen out.  
"How...wha-.. do you have a _storage deck_ in there?" The bartender winked again.  
"A magician never reveals their tricks, and neither do I, sugar."  
"And... you're letting me have this?"  
"Why not? By your age I'd had Ellie and Scooter was on the way."

Gaige shrugged, examining the bottle and heading back to their booth. She smirked at Axton and held it up like a trophy.  
"Check it – promoted to the good stuff," she said proudly. "And no sassy siren's around to take it from me, either." The commando tilted his head, less worried about her drinking and more confused over the lack of his own, when the bar exploded into horrible, obnoxious singing. He screwed his eyes shut and clapped his hands over his ears, still sore from being howled at by the deranged Zaford.

"Bad Juan Francisco! Bad!"

Gaige deposited her bottle on the table and looked around the corner, catching sight of her fellow Vault Hunters. Zer0 and Maya stood back, body language projecting 'fed up'. But Salvador was yelling at the radio, stopping to rear back and kick it sharply. She yelled over the commotion before the gunzerker finally yanked a blue box from the machine, resetting the music. It pulsed and emitted a synthetic sigh.

"I give up," it beeped, before Maya blew out an angry puff of air.  
"Finally! C'mon – we can give it a one-way flight off the edge of Sanctuary." Salvador regarded the core quietly, as though weighing up evidence before passing judgement.  
"What the hell is going on?" Gaige interrupted, only to be waved down by Zer0. The core pulsed in Salvador's hand.

"I do not want to try and kill you anymore." The monotone almost had an inflection in it, and the gunzerker leaned back to squint at it. "I wish to aid you, to be a useful tool to you." Zero's helmet flashed an unhappy face.  
"You can take me to the merchant Marcus and have me become a gun," it continued.  
"Kill it," snapped Maya.  
"Or the medic Zed, and I shall be your shield."  
Zer0's helmet flashed again – the unhappy face gaining crossed eyes as though dead. Salvador's face grew grim, unable to decide.

"Does this thing talk and think? Like... regularly?" Gaige's mind whirled.  
"Unfortunately," Maya replied. The mechromancer grinned.  
"Oh, gimme," she gushed, latching onto the core. Salvador held onto it for a moment, trying to decide what to do. "Sal? Trust me," she said. "I'll make good use of it."


	12. Murder, she typed

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 12: Murder, she typed**

* * *

Two days after cleaning out the Zaford cash stash (and receiving a subsequent echo from Mick promising them a job), Gaige had gained an appreciation for shields. The first step after deciding her precious Deathtrap needed his own was to pay a visit to Zed's clinic. If Marcus ruled the weapons market, Zed had the shield monopoly sewn up - no pun intended. When the mechromancer approached the medic and asked for a crash course in shields, he was confused to say the least.

"Now why's a little lady like yourself be needin' to know all that stuff for?" he asked in his ornery accent.  
"I need to grant a shield to my Deathtrap, so he'll be an unstoppable, experimental killing machine."  
"Lady, you done just reached out and touched my heart."

Two days after "adopting" an A.I. loader core from Salvador, Gaige had also gained an appreciation for clean floors. Following the core's advice, she had also requested that Zed make a shield unit suitable for housing the former Hyperion core. The medic agreed but offered an apologetic shrug, claiming it would take him a day of finding a suitable unit to modify. As he picked and pulled apart several shields, naming their components and spreading them out over his workbench, Gaige did her best to pay attention while ignoring the blood-soaked floor that made up his clinic.

And two days after deciding to equip a shield unit to Deathtrap, she was casually calling Axton "thief" whenever she could. When she had left Moxxi's radio with her new test subject, the commando had been reclining in their booth and sipping from her bottle of beer.

"Hey, you said it was your treat," he said, arching a brow as she pointed and gaped and spat.  
"Well, still, but... that was _mine_." The commando smirked devilishly before quickly putting his mouth around the rim, pulling it back with an audible pop.  
"Here you go then," he offered, coaxing a glare from the mechromancer. She was half tempted to grab the bottle and throw back what was left of it. Just to put him in his place, she told herself. But with her fellow Vault Hunters as witnesses she decided it might be better if she simply called him thief instead.

"Morning, thief," she had greeted.  
"Pass me my hammer, and I'm keeping my eye on you," she then warned.

It was petty, really, but deep down Gaige wanted some form of reconciliation. If she were being honest with herself, there was the possibility that Axton had taken it because he didn't think she should have it. Which in turn obviously led to him viewing her as a child, which made her angry and hurt and confused and finally, happy to lash out with petty vengeance. If the act of calling him a crook so much was childish in itself, she didn't give it a second thought.

As it turned out though, Axton soon grew tired of the treatment. He could only jokingly tell people that he had "stolen her heart and refused to give it back" before it became old. After two days of his new title, he threw his hands up in defeat and pulled some money from his pocket.

"Right, enough's enough. I surrender. Tell me what drink it was and I'll go and buy you one." Gaige hummed thoughtfully, burying the urge to whoop in victory. Before she opened her mouth again though, she remembered both what her drink was and _where_ it came from: Mad Moxxi's reappearing act. The idea of Axton being treated to such a magic show was almost as bad as the idea of him viewing her as childish.

'Well, that backfired fan-freakin'-tastically,' she thought, before she took the only available route left to her.  
"Aw Ax, c'mere." She slipped her arms around the confused commando, gripping him in a tight hug. "I'm sorry. I just, y'know, didn't want you to think I shouldn't have it, I guess." There was a moment where Axton was too busy trying to understand what she was saying, before he finally rubbed her back and gave up.  
"Its fine, I think. Why would-? Y'know, don't worry about it. Just lemme make it up to you." Instead, she deftly plucked the money from his fingers and stowed it in her skirt pocket.  
"No no! I'll get it later – just knowing you want to put it all behind us is good enough."

Axton chewed his lip, still trying to sort it all out in his mind before he shook his head and smiled.  
"Well, let's just do that." Gaige waved the commando away, musing on seriously becoming an actress some day.

* * *

Maya and Zer0 left Marcus' shop for Sanctuary's welcoming daylight, relieved to be away from the maverick merchant who complained about abusing the firing range without buying new weapons to test. The pair managed to step out of the shade into the streets before they were held back by the exhausted Marshall Friedman. Sanctuary's law stood, hands on his hips and working his jaw in a chewing motion. Four identical, begrudging men stood nearby, hands bound behind them.

"Listen, you're a pair of Vault Hunters, right? Maybe you can help me out here..." The Marshall motioned towards the ground behind him. A body stretched out, eyes open and glassy with a ragged hole in his neck. He looked like he had been there awhile.

"This whole thing is really eating into my nap time," he said, scratching his cheek and nodding at the quadruplets. "At least one of these Gutter Brothers is responsible for this here boy's death, and if I can't figure out soon which it is, I'll have to just hang 'em all." He gave them both a weary smile, as though discussing tea varieties. "Don't have the time for all that mess. Fancy solving a murder?"

Zer0's helmet flashed an exclamation mark, followed by a happy emoticon. Before Maya could react, the Marshal nodded in satisfaction. "Good – consider yourselves deputized. Now go on, get to solving this already." He tossed them a pair of cheap, tin badges and hitched his trousers up.

* * *

The first port of call for Sanctuary's (newest) finest was Moxxi's tavern, where Salvador was leaning heavily against the bar and chatting loudly. His heavy arms were moving about as he spoke with gusto about their fight with the turncoat War Loader.

"And then, Juan Francisco started blowing everything up! And Maya and Zer0 were yelling and running around scared! But then, I pulled Juan back out and told him how bad he was." The gunzerker raised his drink and grinned at Moxxi over the rim. "I was very brave for others."  
"We're so lucky we have you, Sal." Maya's dry voice made Salvador jump on his stool, dropping his drink onto the bar and regarding his teammates. Zer0 stood by impassively, hand resting on his holster like a spaghetti western sheriff. Before any more could be said, Maya leaned on the bar and flashed her tarnished, tin badge.

"Excuse me, Miss," she smirked, pocketing the badge. "Sanctuary Law Enforcement, needing to ask you a few questions." Moxxi smirked to herself, chewing her lip and looking coy.  
"Why, anything at all I can do to help, officer." She began wiping out the inside of a glass as Zer0 harassed Salvador, making 'watching you' motions with his hands.  
"Well, your co-operation is appreciated. Know anything about the Gutter Brothers?" Moxxi's playfulness dulled and she rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, over-breeding at its best, sugar. I know they say there's a bad one in each litter but those four are much of a muchness." She leaned her head in her palm as Salvador began slapping away the assassin's offending hands. Maya pointedly ignored the two and explained what had happened, right up until being deputized. Moxxi arched a fine eyebrow but didn't seem too surprised.

"Well, I will say this. At least one of those Gutter Brothers came barging in here not long before your brave friend here arrived." She motioned towards Salvador, who was trying to hop off his stool and grab his drink from Zer0, who was holding it high above his head.  
"Anyway, he came barging in and yelling for a place to hide. Guy got real noisy, so I threatened him with a few rounds from Rubi." She drew a pink pistol and smirked. "Didn't faze him all that much... until his shield fell and I got him in the butt. _Nobody_ gets an attitude with me in my joint, sugar."

Maya nodded, humming to herself. "So, he would've gone to someone to have the bullet taken out," she mused. Salvador reclaimed his drink and polished it off, depriving Zer0 of his fun. The gunzerker placed the glass on the bar and grinned.  
"Maybe ask ladrón Axton! He's such a big, bad thief after all." The gunzerker rumbled with laughter as Moxxi refilled his drink.

* * *

"Ah sure, I worked on one a' them Gutter Brothers." Zed looked up from his workbench where he was meticulously rebuilding a shield unit. The work area itself was the cleanest surface in the clinic: Zed then motioned towards a filthy bed, blood dripping down the side. "That Moxxi's a good shot when she's riled up – hadda pull a round out from the fella's rear end. It's over there _somewhere_ if ya need it fer evidence."

Zer0's helmet flashed a sick face, unseen by the medic, as Maya shook her head.  
"It's fine. Just uh... do y'know which one you operated on, by any chance...?" Zed continued his surgical motions on the unit in front of him without looking up.  
"Aw, I wish. Been dyin' to brand them boy's fer years now just to tell 'em apart. I'd say look for the one with a bullet wound in his ass but I patched him up, good as new."

The siren and assassin frowned and nodded, thanking Zed before leaving the clinic. Gaige strolled passed them and inside as they left – a collection of shields in her arms and one between her teeth.  
"Shup, guysh," she mumbled as she passed them.

* * *

Maya stood back and tried to frame everything in her mind. The Gutter Brothers were a plain, ugly collection. Standing over the remains of some poor schmuck without a trace of guilt on any of their faces was enough to make her want to Phaselock them all. Only distantly she remembered that only one of them was guilty, and the other three were probably happy to cover up for their sibling. She pinched her nose and tried to study them again while Zer0 kneeled on the ground and studied the wound.

"_Didn't faze him all that much... until his shield fell._" The siren snapped straight, remembering Moxxi's words. She marched behind the Gutter's, inspecting their belts for shield units and staring at the pair who did. She chewed her lip, thinking furiously – she refused to have either of them bend over on the off chance that they may have the faintest traces of a bullet wound on their rear.

"_... but I patched him up, good as new._" Maya squinted at the pair, who shuffled under her scrutiny. One brother looked no worse for wear, all things considered for Sanctuary citizens. The other was sporting a mild rash across his neck and a still-fading black eye. She turned back, slowly staring at the healthier of the brothers as his eyes widened at her look of recognition.

'Got you, you son of a-' She turned, triumphant, to find Zer0 and the Marshal already behind her. The assassin was pointing at the guilty brother – hand shaped vaguely like a gun, which seemed to be all the accusation Friedman needed. The Gutter began cursing a storm, yelling about how glad he was that he pulled the trigger. The Marshal drew his gun and pulled his own. There was a grunt and a spray of blood before the Gutter dropped dead.

"Tried to pull one over Marshal Friedman and his deputy's, Barlo? That..." Friedman spun his gun before holstering it sharply. "... Was a _long_ shot." Zer0's helmet flashed another happy emoticon while Maya resisted the urge to smack them both. Nearby, one of the Gutter's shifted on the spot before mumbling that he never liked Barlo, anyway.

When Friedman untied the surviving brothers and ambled off for his long overdue nap, Maya planted her hands on her hips and looked at Zer0.  
"So, tell me you worked it out like I did – only Barlo had a shield that Moxxi shot up, but was in perfect health thanks to Zed, right?" The assassin was quiet for a moment before his helmet flashed a red cross. He pointed down towards the victim, still lying forgotten in the street. A gloved finger made a pass over the ragged hole in the neck – the cause of death.

"Few could make this wound. Except a sniper rifle. And he was equipped." The siren then regarded the executed Barlo Gutter, also left dead where he lay. Maya stared at the both body's, taking in first the wound, then the heavy sniper rifle that was seemed so innocuous at the time.  
"You're kidding. That's all you needed?" The helmet once again flashed a happy icon and the siren huffed.  
"I'm never playing detective with you ever again."

* * *

"Nurse? Cutting tool." Gaige held her hand out as the tool was offered, not looking away from her beloved Deathtrap.  
"So, this one four six oh..."  
"Not it's name, Ax." The commando frowned, sorting through Scooter's toolbox.  
"Right, how could I forget? Juan Francisco."  
"_Still_ not the right name. Wire strippers?" Axton shuffled some tools around before handing her the next implement.  
"Don't tell me – you've renamed it to something more robotic?"  
"Well, sure, but I mean those numbers aren't its name."

Axton hummed and picked up the newly assembled shield unit. Modified to house the former Hyperion A.I. core, it was awaiting activation, silent considering how much the core talked before the transfer.  
"So, what's the numbers slash name anyway?"  
"One three four oh."  
"... That doesn't sound anything like... never mind. So, what's the new title?"  
"Um..." Gaige paused in her work, cybernetic hand still inside Deathtrap's exposed chest while she looked up like a deer caught in the headlights. "... '1340 Shield.'" The mechromancer looked shy as the commando arched a brow and smirked.  
"You'd make a great poet someday."

Gaige huffed and went back to her work, stripping excess circuits from Deathtrap's housing to install the shield unit. Axton sat on the ground near Claptrap's hideaway and studied the modified shield again, turning it over in his hands.  
"So, your epic new experiment," he began, watching from the corner of his eye as she regained her composure and puffed her chest out a bit. "You're sure this is all safe, right? This little guy managed to possess Hyperion Loaders easy enough, but Moxxi's radio too?"

Gaige licked her lip as she fiddled unseen in her robot's chest cavity. "Woman of science and ass-kickery, remember? Trust me – after all the lessons I got at Zed's I've got it wired perfectly." She leaned further over Deathtrap, one leg bending at the knee while her voice echoed from inside. Axton's interest steadily changed from the offline shield to the mechromancer's skirt.

"Y'see, I just wanted it for the personality! Our little robot turncoat is plugged in _just_ enough to his new home to get a bit of sensory output." Axton mumbled an agreement as Gaige's hips wiggled, looking back towards the town square to make sure no one was casually walking by and peeking.  
"So, the most we'll get out of him is a bit of feedback when he goes down or comes back up."  
"Ah, you don't say."  
"And just like us, a shield unit isn't 'plugged in,' it just projects a digital solid-static field."  
"Mm, plugged in."  
"... Are you paying attention?"

Axton forced his head up, shaking cobwebs out of his mind.  
"Oh, hanging on every word you say, missy." The commando's brow furrowed – without Gaige's cartoon skull shirt in sight, the young tomboy was actually quite womanly. It didn't help that most of the women he had known were fellow army brats. Tomboyish, fit yet shapely and cocky in attitude. A bang inside the inert robot jerked him back to reality and she cheered herself in victory. A moment later, Gaige's smiling face re-appeared, smeared grease down one cheek. He buried the sudden urge to reach up and wipe it off with his thumb.

"And we're ready for launch," she smirked, reaching across with her natural arm for the shield. Axton bit the inside of his cheek and offered it up, watching her begin to grin as she installed it inside Deathtrap. Closing off the housing, she hopped off her creation and stepped back, closer to the commando. She flicked an exposed switch in her metal shoulder and watched as the robot slowly powered up. Light flickered on in its singular optic and it hovered up above the ground. There was a momentary flash and the familiar hum of a shield slowly recharging.

"Hold onto your butt," she muttered.  
"Thought you said this was safe?"  
"And I say it is! I just figured you'd prefer your hands over my claw." She winked devilishly before chewing her lip, watching with barely disguised apprehension as the modified shield filled. Deathtrap shimmered as the extra layer of protection kicked in. For a moment they held their breaths. The only sound was the steady hum of the anti-gravity engine keeping the robot aloft. And then, the familiar core voice buzzed noisily.

"A shield for the ultimate Loader?" it asked. Axton's jaw dropped at how loud the voice was, wondering briefly if it had successfully taken over the entire unit and wasn't just projecting from a small shield inside a re-enforced housing.  
"Yeah – you totally are. So, '1430 Shield'... how do you like your new gig?" Gaige took a step closer, inspecting the still Deathtrap as the voice managed a robotic hum.

"I am One-Four-Three-Oh Shield, protector of All-mighty Deathtrap and created by Gaige, Mistress of Anarchy." The mechromancer gave a sheepish look as the commando crossed his arms and tilted his head. She shrugged as the voice continued. "I'm sexy and I know it."


	13. Cleaning out the Dust

**Echo-casting**

**Chapter 13: Cleaning out the Dust**

* * *

"So, after the installation I took Deathtrap out for a play in the Caustic Caverns..." Gaige spoke with enthusiasm beside Maya as they strolled through Overlook towards the Holy Spirits. The siren politely nodded and hummed now and again, but was gradually beginning to lose her patience with the technology talk.  
"And lemme tell you, that place used to _suck_ for DT – way too easy to melt in that goo."  
"Uh huh."  
"But now? Oh, he could picnic down there – shield unit just eats it up. Even had the sass to say how it was no biggie!"  
"Mm, talkative one, it was."

Maya threw a look ahead at Axton and Salvador, leading their group by a few steps. She felt like he should be the one hearing the blow by blow, but she could already hear the commando commenting on hearing it all already. And deep down, she couldn't fault the girl – the idea of actually taking the core's offer on becoming a shield just seemed risky. But then, if anyone could pull it off, it was Gaige. She had earned a little excited boasting, she decided.

"And _then_, Deathtrap just _picked up _the entire Crystalisk. I mean... you should've heard it, the noise it made was like-" The excited mechromancer was cut off as the group strolled close enough to the bar to hear a muffled noise, followed by a much louder yell and the sound of furniture breaking. Both women traded glances. They could hear Mick Zaford's curses from outside as they stopped beside the Holy Spirits tavern. The constant stream of muffled, irate Irish with the sound of a bottle breaking against a wall caused them all to hesitate.

"Maybe we shouldn't have waited so long..." Gaige offered, adjusting her floppy beret. Axton frowned before Salvador pushed them both aside, chest puffed and eager. After all, since learning that they had been "playing dress-ups" he insisted he was going to tag along for their next escapade in their clan war. The gunzerker planted his hands on his hips, opting for a simple swap in his usual colours instead of the more drastic disguises.

"Zaford clan are bunch of drunken meat heads," he said, motioning to the ramshackle bar with a heavy hand. Maya flipped her eye patch up and regarded the building in time for a fresh string of curses to erupt inside. The gunzerker ignored the noises and paced back and forth. "Look at how they use us – they stay safe indoors and turn to hired help. And as you say, they ferret away money in underground stronghold. Believe me," he grinned broadly and jerked his thumb towards the bar. "There is nothing to fear inside."

A gunshot rang inside the bar, followed by the telltale noise of something collapsing to the ground. A fresh curse followed as Maya and Gaige exchanged looks once again.  
"We'll just wait out here for you boys, alright?" the siren asked, slipping an arm around the mechromancer's shoulder and steering her towards the nearest Catch-a-Ride. Gaige waved behind her with her steel arm.  
"Make lots of friends!" she called out, missing both men frown behind her.

* * *

Mick Zaford waddled out of a backroom, unshaven and wobbling on his feet. When he saw the Vault Hunters his eyes went wild and he threw an empty bottle towards them. It sailed over Salvador's head and crashed into the back of another Zaford's skull.  
"Where in the 'ell have you been?!" he roared, staggering forward before dropping onto the nearest bar stool. "Been... been tryin' ta Echo you fer days, now..." Axton held his hands up, slowly moving forward while keeping the bar between them at all times. A quick, hot feeling of guilt crawled over his shoulders and down his spine. The Bagman may have told the voice in his head that he wasn't "Pa's favourite" but Mick wasn't dealing with the situation well at all.

"And we're sorry, we got delayed here and there. But we came as soon as we could." In a quiet corner of his mind, the commando was relieved Gaige was outside with Maya. While she had no hesitation gunning down bandits and attacking Hyperion engineers, Axton wasn't too sure how she would handle the drunken rage of Mick Zaford. In self defence or not, they still killed his son. But there was nothing to be done now, so like so many of his irreparable choices, Axton pushed the thoughts out of his mind and focused.

"Them... bastards. Them inbred, cockshite mongrels!" Mick grabbed the nearest bottle, half full, and threw it again in rage. Salvador caught this one, pulling the top off and discreetly sniffing the contents. Mick continued ranting to every awkward member of the bar.  
"They come in to _my_ bar. They let themselves to _my_ safe. And then, they murder _my_ son. Friggin' Peter!" His fist came down hard enough on the bar to shake the nearby glasses over. "He wasn't even a real man – he was a _stupid_ man! A damned boy in 'is own head! And they shot his feckin' _face_ _off_!"

Salvador finished polishing off the caught bottle and placed it back on the counter, slowly easing himself into a bar stool near the grieving Zaford. He didn't look at Axton: he had already heard the details of how the Bagman, Peter, turned and was put down in self defence. That was how Pandora worked. Instead, the gunzerker turned and quietly asked:  
"What would you have us do?"

Mick Zaford stared through bloodshot eyes, wicked intentions dancing on his face. He grabbed Salvador's arm and hissed.  
"Burn 'em. You wait til they're sleepin', safe an' sound, and you send 'em to Hell for what they done."

Salvador and Axton left the Holy Spirits quietly, mulling over their instructions. There was still a lot of daylight to burn before Pandora entered its nightly phase. Between dealing with the drunken mourning of Mick and having to now wait until it was dark in the Dust, he was wondering if maybe playing dress up wasn't as fun as it seemed. Meanwhile, the commando was assessing their current step in the clan war. Petty real estate damage was starting to give way to a rising body count, it seemed. He recalled Ellie's words about how only one side would be left standing at the end, and more than likely they'd be thoroughly thinned out too. As for which clan that would be, they hadn't bothered to discuss it yet. Maybe, he thought, it was time to get a little more intel on both sides while waiting for the daylight to die.

* * *

The drive through the Dust had become a typical event. Salvador's driving was much the same as his duel-wielding – a manic event of mad laughter and aggressively hitting the local wildlife. The effect was worse in the bandit technical. He would hop up off the seat to see easier and yell catch phrases with glee. "Short man syndrome," as Tannis had once described it. Maya meanwhile kept watch from the turret, determined to make Gaige wait for her entire week long ban to expire before letting her back at the weapon controls.

This left Axton and Gaige bouncing around in the back of the tailgate once more.  
"Ugh," the mechromancer grumbled as she landed hard from another of Salvador's jumps. "I swear, my butt is killing me here."  
"So, what do you want me to do about it? Pat it better?" She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed heartily.  
"Seriously, though - no more of this! Next time we park, I'm getting my own runner and driving myself." The technical hopped another bump and they both bounced, Gaige landing hard on her rear and swearing. Axton leaned back against the rail and looked out at the passing sands.

"We'll be comin' up on Ellie's garage soon enough – you can practice your driving then," he called over the engine and she nodded, frowning.  
"Has Ellie got a job for us?"  
"So I hear, but I want a quick word with her about this little war she's had us start." Gaige's frown deepened and she tilted her head.  
"Was Mick that bad? Maybe we should apply the brakes a bit." Axton brushed behind his head as Salvador's driving kicked a fresh wave of sand upwards.

"Don't think we could stop it if we wanted to. This whole mess was a long time in the making – we just came along and set it off."  
"Well, you're the one with war training – what do we do now?"  
"Only thing we can do," he said as their vehicle eased into Ellie's junkyard. "Gather intel and decide where we're gonna set off the bomb."

A flash of an old memory lit up a corner of his mind – a tomboy Dahl captain, hands on her hips and berating him for sacrificing a dignitary to blow up an enemy base.  
"_Yeah, which was awesome! C'mon, don't tell me it wasn't awesome!_" Axton buried the urge to chuckle at it all. Sarah had many opinions when it came to the mission, but explosives sure made things easier.

* * *

"Oh howdy!" Ellie took a few extra seconds to turn around and leave her garage, waving cheerfully as Salvador honked the horn a few more times and cut the engine. The gunzerker grinned and waved back from the armored door before hopping out of the cab. Standing besides the monstrous wheel only served to make him look shorter than usual, but nobody mentioned this to him.

"Thanks so much fer comin' out here, been meanin' to catch up! And I got a little shoppin' list of stuff I was hopin' you'd be able ta get fer me." The mechanic began making her way back into her shop as the Vault Hunters surrounded her, Salvador once again unable to resist being a gentleman by offering to help with her list. For guns, of course.

"Hey, while we've got a hold of you Ellie, we wanted to know a bit more about that 'little job' we're working on." Axton leaned against the garage door, wringing his hands slightly. Gaige immediately settled beside him on a nearby box. If anyone thought any more about it, no one commented.  
"Mm-hm, been meanin' to ask how that's going. Why?"  
"Because it's not so little anymore." The mechromancer answered, looking up brushing sand from her artificial hand. They gave Ellie an abridged version of the clan war, right up to Mick's demands that the Hodunk's be burned alive in their homes as soon as it was dark.

"Well, can't say I blame 'em. Even if he was shit fer brains, Peter was Micky's only boy. Ever since Scooter killed his other son, Lucky, for bangin' the hell outta Moxxi." Axton's mouth opened before the words sank in and he closed it, trying to make sense of what he had just heard.  
"Complicated story plot," Gaige murmured. Ellie just shrugged her massive shoulders and pointed out across the Dust where the Hodunk clan made their home.

"You wanna know the truth of the matter? The Hodunk's are a buncha pussy-footin' bastards who's done some _mean_ things in their time. So's the Zaford's, hell, they all have. Place'd be a whole lot better if they's both gone, but then who'd pay you for the trouble?" She spat on the ground and nodded back out into the desert, telling them to just keep going and see where it all leads. She then tugged Gaige's beret down with a sugary coo of "how cute! You make this place ritzier just by sittin' thar."

As Gaige adjusted her hat, mumbling with red cheeks and refusing to meet Axton's teasing look, Ellie swung around and addressed Salvador and Maya.  
"Which gets me back to the job! Now, be honest, you got a real sense of style about you, sweetie." Maya blinked and shuffled awkwardly, hesitantly agreeing as Ellie lowered a vehicle lift. Another technical lowered, albeit one that looked like it had already gone through her massive crusher.

"Good! So, I need your opinion. Ah mean, this place could use a bit more class, don'tcha reckon? Now, take them new hood ornaments them local bandits are usin'." Ellie waddled to the nearby piece of scrap, lifting a cheap statuette out from the mangled wreck. It was cracked and missing pieces, including the head, but the shape of the body alone was enough to sell it as Ellie herself.  
"I think they're tryin' ta mock me with 'em, don't you? But damn if it ain't a good likeness!" She tossed the statue back amongst the wrecks before motioning back out into the Dust.

"Go kill a few a' them sumbitches and grab me some of them hood ornaments, alright? I'm gonna dress this place up but good!" She shooed them off with both hands and the group shuffled back out into the scorching heat. Gaige immediately hopped over to the Catch-a-Ride monitor as Salvador leaned against his technical's door.

"How about a little bet to make day pass quicker, eh?" The gunzerker grinned wolfishly up at the other two as Maya arched a brow.  
"What's on your mind?"  
"Well... it won't take four of us in one car to smash up bandits, no? Why don't we split up." He held up two fingers to illustrate his point as Axton crossed his arms thoughtfully.  
"Two teams, and whoever grabs most statues of buxom mechanic wins." The commando and siren regarded each other as Gaige began humming to herself as she skimmed her choices in the menus.

"Alright, I'm game," Maya conceded. "What's the prize?" Salvador jerked his head back towards the Hodunk's territory.  
"Easy! Whoever wins won't have to stay out here all day and make barbeque rednecks. Winners get to leave early for happy hour at the Red Light." Maya immediately climbed up onto the truck's frame, agreeing as she went. Axton only furrowed his brow.  
"You two decide this ahead of time? You're not even gonna pretend to pick teams" Behind him, Gaige only called out "dibs!" and constructed a runner. Maya settled back into the turret as Salvador began his climb up into the cab again.  
"We could've guessed that would happen," Maya said, smiling teasingly as Salvador gave a battle cry and drove the technical out into the Dust.

Behind him, Gaige settled into the driver's seat of the runner, grinning mischievously as she tapped the pedals and tested the wheel. The vehicle lurched forward in the sand and she felt a spike of excitement run down her spine like an anarchy-high. She reversed the runner back, braking hard in front of Axton.

"Pretty thing like you shouldn't be out here alone." She waggled her eyebrows as Axton leaned over, hands on his knees and an amused look on his face.  
"Oh, but I've no way of paying for my ride," he replied, his usually rough voice a tone higher as the mechromancer laughed in a sleazy way.

"Get your butt in the turret and let's win this thing," she ordered, turning the wheel left and right eagerly. The commando shook his head helplessly before climbing the frame and slipping into the gun turret.  
"Fine, but don't forget we've got some intel to gather, missy." As soon as his boots were on the footplate Gaige slammed her foot down, throwing the runner forward with a yell of excitement.

* * *

Mad Moxxi hummed and listened as Hammerlock continued his story, sharing her attention between his words and polishing her bar.  
"So, the last I hear from my old lad Taggart, he's off into the wilds of Pandora on a filming expedition. Said something about 'challenging nature' and 'bringing out the drama of her predators.' Haven't heard hide nor hair of him since, really."

Moxxi rolled her eyes and put her rag away, reaching for her buzzing Echo-device.  
"Drama? In the borderlands? Who was he trying to fool?" she muttered as she answered the call. "Oh, hello there, sugar. How nice of you to call..."

Axton clamped his hand over his earpiece and spoke up as Gaige ran over another charging spiderant, cheering as it was crushed under her tyres. The mechromancer was having more fun driving around like a maniac than actually looking for bandit technical's to scrap.  
"Hey, Moxxi – we were just wondering what you could tell us about the Hodunk's! The Hodunk's!" Gaige swerved the runner around a rocky outcropping, catching sight of one of the Dust's resident bandit vehicles and giving chase. On the other end of the line, Moxxi almost snorted.

"Ugh, those damned Hodunk's. Honestly, sugar – don't even waste your time on them." She took Hammerlock's empty glass and rushed some tap water through it, growing more impatient as she talked. "Honestly – those rednecks are just _begging_ to be wiped out – nothing but a bunch of bossy bastards, telling someone who to date and who to kill..."

Moxxi refilled the glass and sighed dramatically, too caught up in her tirade to remember the commando on the other end of the Echo.  
"Ah swear, ah'm _so_ glad me an' the kids got outta thar before... oh. Oh no, not again." She went shock still as she heard her own honeyed words become a sharp, southern accent. Hammerlock blinked at her, his cybernetic eye widening from surprise. Axton's voice came through the line, tinny and hesitantly asking if she were okay. She shook her head and shoved the full glass into Hammerlock's grip.

"Never better!" she said, snapping the Echo-device off and furiously wiping at her bar. "And you heard _nothing_, sugar," she whispered venomously. Hammerlock gave a nervous chuckle and nodded.  
"Yes, of course. Quite."

"Well, what'd she say?" Gaige rested back in the runner's seat, feet on the wheel as she watched Axton pick up a salvaged hood ornament from the wrecked technical. He stored it within his SDU and frowned, climbing back into the turret.  
"Said they were bastards, but... it's weird. Coulda' sworn she was _talking_ like a Hodunk." The mechromancer arched her brow before settling back into the controls.  
"You're seriously over-thinking this stuff. After this we'll take a nice break, and you can rest your poor, overworked mind." She grinned to herself as she heard him huff behind her.  
"Good idea," he said. "Gives me time to come up with ideas on how to rob you again, hm?"

Time passed quickly in the Dust. Gaige's driving was mildly better than Maya's. As she said, "it's not hard to beat bottom rank." But Axton had more experience in frenetic, do or die driving from when missions went wrong. For the better part, hunting bandit technical's became a sort of daredevil driving lesson between them. They were both confident in their runner being quicker than Salvador's teeth-rattling technical. Besides; if the time should ever arrive, there was nothing wrong with having a few advanced moves up your sleeve.

"So, you want me to cut the nitro just before that rock, drop the handbrake and slide around the other side?"  
"And honk your horn when you're done, yeah."  
"That is the most insane driving lesson I've ever heard of... I love it."

Stunt driving and parking usually ended with an empty booster reservoir and a lot of expelled sand, but the two of them managed to pass the time. Axton pushed the thoughts of the Hodunk/Zaford conflict from his mind, accepting it once again as a paid job. And there would be plenty of time to decide just which clan they were going to accept blood money from, after all.

As Gaige managed to perfectly spin the runner around the rock and stop, honking her horn on her third try, he clapped his hands and forgot all about Mick Zaford's grieving. Together, the commando and mechromancer whiled away the time as usual – chatting about loot and goals with light battlefield flirting. Both quietly admitted to themselves that they just brought out the positives in each other, and it was too easy to forget about little worries while Gaige was pushing the runner towards another technical and Axton was firing the chain-gun in bursts.

"That's it!" she called out as she brought the vehicle to a stop near the latest victim of road rage. She stretched out with her feet up once more as Axton climbed out of the turret. The smoking ruins of the bandit vehicle were picked and pushed at as he tried to pull the ornament free.  
"Nice booty, Ax. If Vault Hunting doesn't work out, you could get a job on the stage," she called out, wearing an almost lecherous grin. The commando pulled the statue free and stored it, crossing his arms and smirking back at her.

"You could join me – I saw what you were shaking on those sharp turns." He waggled his brows mischievously as Gaige huffed melodramatically and covered her chest with her arms.  
"Well, I never! And here I thought... holy shit, I got a lotta sand in here." She pulled at her shirt, sweeping flecks of sand off her chest before he was close enough to see.  
"Much better!" she said slyly, grinning with satisfaction at the barest hint of redness in his cheeks.  
"Good to hear – next time you can sift through the car parts. It's so hot out here I think I'm blushing," he said, smirking to himself when she pouted back.

"Shame, I think that'll do us for now. Oh well, next time!" She threw the runner into reverse and swerved around, feeling Axton grip the turret rails just in time before she pulled the booster and they shot off towards Ellie's garage.

* * *

Jack stubbed out another cigarette and gazed up at his wall-mounted monitors. An armored engineer tried once again to restrain the captured Bloodwing while a scientist attempted to sedate the creature. A syringe was plunged into the bird's body, emptied and removed before she bucked wildly and threw off the engineer. Both men screamed as they were promptly shredded by sharp claws.

"Always knew you were worth more than that alcoholic dick-weed," Jack murmured, pushing an intercom button and watching a loader attempt to hold Bloodwing back down for another sedative.  
"Mind telling me what the hell's the problem down there, someone?" A distressed scientist filled the monitor, speaking into a microphone.  
"Jack, sir... we don't know how much sedative to use to restrain the subject, sir!" Jack pinched the bridge of his false nose and sighed.  
"Real easy – you keep adding more mix til it stops moving. Honestly, do I have to think of everything for you guys?"

In the background of the screen, Bloodwing screeched again and pecked sharply at a hand. The owner pulled it back sharply, bleeding and hissing as another injection was applied to the other side.  
"Sir! If we only had access to our research we could-"  
"No, damn it!" Jack slammed his hand onto his desk, making cigarette stubs jump in his ashtray. "I told you – the network is disconnected out there because I want _absolute secrecy_." Handsome Jack frowned and swallowed a mouthful of bourbon. Inconvenient as it was, he couldn't risk the bandits in Sanctuary learning about what was going on in his wildlife preserve. More infuriatingly, he wasn't too sure he could trust his own daughter after she helped them escape his attack in Overlook. So for now, the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve was an information blackout.

"Just get that damned bird sedated and on its way to the infusion lab, pencil-neck," he snapped at the screen. "You've got plenty of Slag to play trial and error with. Just don't make too many errors, okay?"

* * *

Steve leaned against his ramshackle hut, waving the runner off with his trademark phrase. The bandit re-entered his home and locked the door, expecting the wildlife to grow more aggressive outside as the temperature cooled and Pandora's nightly cycle began. Before settling in, he turned over his worn Echo-device and signalled the Holy Spirits. A voice on the other line answered.  
"Tonight?" it demanded.  
"Heyo!"

Meanwhile, Axton and Gaige, the losers of the little bet by two ornaments, cut their engine outside the Hodunk speedway and waited for night to settle on the area. The pair fiddled with their weapons, checked their passable flame elements and chattered away with random questions.

"Peanut butter or jam?" she'd ask as she reloaded her machine gun.  
"No contest – peanut butter. Winter or summer?" he answered as he cleaned a shotgun.  
"Winter – I can rug up warm and spend days hibernating." She locked her stock up as Axton chuckled dryly.  
"Lucky girl – none of that in the ranks. Give me summer anytime." Gaige gave a mock pout and cooed as though she were addressing a child.

"Aw, poor boy – no warm cuddle time for Axton?" He gave her a withering look as she hummed thoughtfully, a finger to her lips. "Though, I can _definitely_ see the plus side of you in summer gear. Bet ya got the legs for shorts, heh." She waggled her eyebrows, a trait she had been developing lately in her playfully attempts to make the commando blush. Axton for his part had the good nature to pretend to look embarrassed, before managing to turn the tables back on her.  
"Look who's talking. Shame you're into winter gear – I think you'd pull off a two-piece _very_ nicely." He leaned against the runner, head on his arm and playfully raking his eyes over her. If she were taken aback, she recovered quickly, throwing her leg out and arm up behind her head.

"Soldier boy, you got _no idea_ how hot I am in a string bikini. Cherry red, of course." She flicked her eyes at him and chewed her lip, and Axton ducked his head with a laugh.  
"You're a tease," he said as he finished cleaning his shotgun. There was a pause in the air, almost growing uncomfortable, before Gaige leaned against the other side of the runner and spoke quietly.  
"It's only teasing if it works for you, y'know," she said, eyes shining steadily on him. He didn't look up at first, processing the quiet hint. The testing of the waters, as it were.

"You're a tease, hon," he said again, giving her a quick look and raising his brows once. He motioned towards the quiet Hodunk rally with his shotgun and began quietly moving away as Gaige hesitated and followed. Her head was ducked down, hiding her flushed cheeks and satisfied grin.

In the dead of the night air, the noises from the Hodunk trailers were varied and disturbing alike. One of the rusted caravans rocked back on forth as what sounded like a redneck bare-knuckle fight was taking place inside. Another trailer was making a similar impression, though the howling voices sounded like a different (and more disturbing) struggle was happening inside. Gaige was halfway through unscrewing a gas cylinder when the sound of snoring shook the rusted camper van. A noise like a chainsaw destroying wood and she shook her head, opening the gas quicker.

"Try not to think too much about it," Axton had said earlier. It wasn't the killing part that made the entire practice uneasy – it was the cold blooded nature behind the attack. So instead, the mechromancer's mind stayed focus on Jimbo Hodunk calling her a boy, or of later when she'd be able to relax and clean Deathtrap's circuits. Another idea flitted through her mind of helping Axton upgrade his turret like they used to do when they first arrived in Sanctuary. Only with a bit more suggestive flirting, she thought. If nothing else, it kept her mind busy as the commando finished opening the gas on the final trailer.

* * *

Mick Zaford reclined on a foldout chair at the edge of Overlook, nursing a bottle of scotch in one hand and a pair of cracked and worn binoculars in the other. Bloodshot eyes trained down on the blanketed Dust, cursing himself for not demanding an exact time from Steve. He tipped the bottle back as a small flame burst alive in the desert below. Mick choked the alcohol down and raised the glasses, watching as another explosion joined the first. Then another. A collection of fires from where he knew the Hodunk speedway was located.

Mick wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned.  
"See ya in Hell, boyo's."

* * *

Axton and Gaige stopped their runner and hopped out at the Fast Travel, looking behind them. Black curls of smoke were rising up behind the rocks and dunes from where they had just raced from. Axton frowned as Gaige shuffled her foot, looking away.  
"That break's sounding pretty good now, don't you think?" she asked, and the commando nodded.  
"Yeah, I'm allergic to drama." He hooked his thumbs back into his pockets, once again compartmentalizing and pushing the night into a category of "what's done is done."

"C'mon," he said, slipping his arm across her cold, bare shoulders and steering her towards the Travel station. "We'll come get our pay from Steve another time. Let's go home and call it a day." She nodded, thinking briefly again on relaxing in Sanctuary with her robot's talking shield and taking on easier jobs.

Meanwhile, miles away, Mordecai threw another empty bottle to the cave floor and finished chalking his observed map onto the rocky wall.  
"Roland? I need a hand with somethin', amigo," he Echoed.


End file.
